The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Anna Merlan

Image by: kodomut

A lot of ink and even more pixels have been expended on the subject of the so-called “internet vortex” – the huge amounts of free time and productivity that go swirling down the drain as internet users get sucked into the morass of games, blogs, social networking sites and other time wasters. The irony that you’re reading yet another piece about this on yet another website is obvious. But it’s an actual problem, and one that afflicts a lot of people, me included. As recent college graduates in a terrible economy, we have a lot to do and even more to worry about, a situation which is not helped by having every minute of our time sucked up by playing online Scrabble or looking up old boyfriends. Lemon Life’s Juicy Bits blog recently linked to an ABC special report on “Facebook Addiction” – though I’m still a little skeptical that such a thing exists, some of the indicators of a problem hit me uncomfortably close to home.

Of course, the easiest solution is just not to log on – but sometimes willpower is hard to come by, especially when you’re un- or underemployed and find yourself with a lot of free time. Sure, you know that you should spend that time filling out job applications, but sometimes Wikipedia and its endless font of useless knowledge beckons. Two hours later, you’ve read dozens of articles about serial killers and are totally creeped out, and have yet to do any productive work. So what’s an internet addict to do?

I recently looked into downloading the Freedom software, a program that disables your internet access for a set amount of time. The software is free and promises to be relatively safe and easy to use – but it’s only set up for Apple computers, and I’ve got Windows Vista, so that one’s out for me. It might be an option for you obsessively devoted Mac users – check out the creator’s site at http://www.macfreedom.com. Note that he does recommend starting with smaller amounts of time and working your way up to longer periods, both to make sure the software works as it’s designed on your machine, and to avoid cutting out your internet for three hours at a time when you might actually need it.

I have another, slightly more low-tech, approach that I sometimes use. But before I tell you what it is, be warned: it is insanely irritating, both to you and to everyone around you. Essentially, I set a timer on my cell phone for a span of about 15 to 20 minutes. The noise of the timer is ungodly - a series of grating, piercing beeps that escalate in volume. For the first 15 minutes, I’m free to do whatever I want – surf a stupid blog, read restaurant reviews in The New York Times for places far too expensive for me to ever visit, or watch ridiculous music videos on Youtube. But then I reset the timer for another 15 or 20 minutes, and in that time I have to do something work-related. Usually, for me that means writing. But the definition is loose – I can also fill out an application or a registration form, look on job-related websites, or do research and background reading for articles I’m working on. For some reason, knowing that I only have to work for a finite amount of time makes actually doing it much easier. It’s basically a way to trick myself into working; usually, I’ll get so into the work that I’m doing that I forget to set the timer again for my goof-off time.

One last important consideration for actually getting something done when you’re in front of the computer are your physical surroundings. I find that when I leave the house and take my laptop to the library or a café, I get a lot less work done, but it’s a lot more pleasant. If I really need to buckle down, I’ll stay home, but if I need to get motivated to start a task that I hate, going to the coffee shop and getting some tea and a slice of pie can be exactly what I need. And sometimes it just takes a change of scenery to jog your brain and make you more productive. Pay attention to what locations feel right for you, and you’ll soon find a less painful way to be productive. Now get back to work.

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