In the bright new world of Web2.0, we are all both consumers and producers. I’ve been thinking today about how the two relate to each other. Time for a graph:
I’d like to spend all my time on-line in the “head down” and “I’m on fire!” zones – reading blogs, writing posts, posting comments, sending emails, coding cool applications, doing school preparation…
Unfortunately, I seem to spend much more time in the “Web1.0″ zone – mindlessly trawling around blogs, my feed reader, checking email, being vaguely inspired but not actually producing anything… and I guess I’m not alone in this.
How do we get the balance right? Without consuming the Web I wouldn’t be producing many of the interesting things that I’m involved with now, but there are times when I feel like I might have produced a whole lot more if I’d just left the computer switched off!
Do you feel like you’ve got the balance right?
Stumble it!
Tags: productivity, web2.0
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I love the graphic! And I know what you mean… I’m in the middle of S4 folios and Higher prlims… I’ve also got a 19 month old who doesn’t like sleeping… and it’s a long time until I can come up for air.
There is LOTS I’d like to be doing, most of it productive too, but Christmas to Easter is a real stinker, and I just know I’ll be up to my neck and feeling vaguely dissatisfied for most of it…
Blogging is a phenomenal tool, but jotters don’t mark themselves… yet… (Actually, my brother had the idea of sub-contracting our marking to an Indian
callmark centre… sometimes I think it might not be such a bad idea!)Hi Robert,
I feel as if i am in the same ‘lurking’ zone too much of the time. One link leads to another and you are lost in wikipedia;-)
Then I end up spending far to much of my ‘heads down/on fire time’ producing things that will never see the light of day or even get finished. Some of this has to do with the crossover between work and obsession/play, some to do with biting off more than I can chew.
I saw an idea somewhere (heh) that to increase efficiency you should turn your computer on and work without reading emails for the first hour, when I add rss/web pages to that at least I get a good start in the ‘head down’ sector.
Hopefully scotedublogs.org.uk will help to make the lurking/reading more efficient and less time consuming too.
Neil – you’re spot on about this time of year! Everyone seems to be looking stressed and weary at school. Still – only 6 weeks ’til Easter is it? I like the idea of sub-contracting marking! I wonder how much of a pay cut teachers would be willing to take to fund it?
John – I feel your pain! I’ve spent endless hours looking into stuff that turned out to be a dead end (trying to get my head around Zope 3 was a particuarly bad one!). Not checking email/rss sounds like a great idea – my usual work flow is something like this:
As a rule, I avoid doing LOL & co… but:
” * Realise I have something to do on the computer
* Turn on computer
* Machine boots up into Linux and shows 20 unread emails and 5 software updates available
* …
* …
* Remember that there was something I was supposed to be doing
* Maybe get it done”
FOTFLMAO…
I think I need help!
Does this help: What does FOTFLMAO stand for? it did help me;-)
Ah – no, it wasn’t the acronym I needed help with
– it was the inability to focus on a simple task on a computer. If you have a link to help with that I would be most grateful. It looks like I could also do with some help in expressing myself clearly!
Never mind focusing on simple tasks… I can’t even focus on the keyboard… it was supposed to be ROTFLMAO…