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Disconnect from the Internet; focus on your task

Have you ever tried to do something that you know you need to accomplish but you were not interested in doing it? Could be a job-related task like:

  • writing a resume
  • editing the resume
  • writing a cover letter
  • editing the cover letter
  • filling out an application
  • preparing questions to ask in a job interview (sometimes at the end of a job interview you can ask questions)

You may be involved in some type of task you want to complete but you are not interested in doing it; so, for example, you may be bored with editing a resume so…. you decide to get on the Internet to look up the score of your favorite sports team.  You decide you are going to read your favorite sports team score and then go back to editing your resume.

You start to read your favorite sports team score and then you notice an article about a favorite player on your sports team.  You decide to read the article.  You then decide to look up the league information on your favorite sports team; and then look up another article on the weather conditions of a favorite sporting event you enjoy.  One task that you do leads to another

task that leads to another task that then leads to another task and so on.   What was supposed to be a 30 second activity turns out to be a 30-minute activity.

 

You decide to focus again and go back to editing your resume.  You start to focus on doing your resume and then boredom start to creep in.  You decide just to get on the Internet to listen to a YouTube video on a favorite history topic.  You know the video that you want listen to is only 5 minutes long and then you will get back to editing your resume.  You get on YouTube and watch the 5-minute history video; and then you notice that YouTube has given you suggestions of other videos to watch.  You find a seven-minute history video that would be fun to watch.  What is seven minutes? That a short period of time you think.  I can look at a 7-minute video and then I will get back to editing the resume.  You finish the 7-minute video and then see a suggestion for another video for 12 minutes; and decide to watch that 12-minute video and then watch another suggested video and so on.  Your short time period away from your task can turn out to be a longer period of time.

 

You decide you really need to focus on editing your resume; so, you go back to editing the resume for a while, and then decide you want to look up the weather forecast on a news web site, as you look for the weather forecast you find a movie review video on a movie you want to see in movie theaters on the news web site, you decide to watch the movie review video, and then you…

The Internet can be filled with many goodies that can occupy your time. The Internet goodies can be:

  • look up your email
  • look at an article of your favorite sports team that you may be interested in following
  • listen to a podcast of a travel show
  • a video of a history of a particular event
  • a video of a relative birthday party
  • a game where you save the world, or better yet same the cosmos

The Internet goodies can occupy a large part of your time when you are trying to get something done.  You can go from one Internet goodie, to another Internet goodie, to another Internet goodie and so on.  You can get into a pattern of jumping back and forth between the task you want to complete and Internet goodies.  The goodies of the Internet can district you from completing what you want to accomplish.

So, what can you do?  You can make a decision to disconnect your computer from the Internet.  Many computer devices will allow you to disconnect from the Internet and then you will not be able to access the Internet goodies.  You can start working on the task that you need to work on; if you feel you need to access an Internet goodie you will get a result similar to “Internet not available”.  You then can go back to the task that you are focused on. You can stay focused on your task until you feel you made enough progress.  You can then decide to connect your computer back to the Internet.  You can stay focused on your task with not being able to access the Internet goodie. You will not have access to Internet goodies to distract you from completing what you want to accomplish.

 

 

Another option is to take a break from that the task that you are doing.  You can take a break and then go back to the task that you are doing.  You may be re-energized to focus on your task after having a break.

You may be working on a job-related task that you need to complete but are getting distracted by the Internet; consider to disconnect your computer from the Internet to remain focus on completing the task that you want to focus on.

(This advice will work if the program you are working on does not need Internet access; if the program you are working on needs Internet access; you can attempt to have a timer set up where you say to yourself “I will work on this task for this amount of time”.  You set the timer for that particular period of time and then start the timer.  You then can commit yourself to work on that task for that particular amount of time.  Then you can “reward” yourself with a different activity when the timer period is over).

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