Nothing new to see
Here’s the scenario: You’re at work between “things”. Whether it’s a lag between meetings, or it’s Friday and nothing is really going on anyways. You fire up your web browser, visit your usual sites (cnn.com, digg.com, adamriggins.com, whatever). At some point, you have seen all you are really interested in at the time. What do you do at that point?
For example, I have a meeting in about 20 minutes. I am as prepared for it as I can be. So, here’s what I do:
- check my gmail
- open up Google Reader and look at all of the new stories to come through
- go to the restroom
- come back to my desk
- check gmail/google reader again
By this point, there is nothing new. What do you do when you get bored sufing the internet and/or your RSS newsreader has no new updates?
Good question – and I was wondering if anybody else ever got to this point as well during the work day. This is what I do each morning…
1. Open up Firefox
2. Open up Outlook (let my feeds come in)
3. Check Gmail in Firefox
4. Check my feeds in Outlook
5. Check my work email in Outlook
6. Answer any work email
7. Check my favorite sites
8. Work until down-time
When a slow point comes in the day – I usually check on things with our server, etc (most of the time I’m doing database work or website work). After that I’ll check my fav sites again, look at the news, use the bathroom, eat some yogurt, then I’m usually bored after looking at everything. Then, I get into this mode of – what interests me or what can I learn today about something i had no idea about. Wikipedia is great for this. Or I’ll look up some cool tech gadgets or gear and read reviews on it. This morning was the Nike+ Armband and a Nike+ Sensor pouch for my non Nike+ shoes.
patrickwitherows last blog post..The joys of wearing socks all day then putting shorts on…
Just a side note – yes I actually do work at work! Most of the steps shown above occur between doing things, and it’s actually pretty busy most of the time around here.
patrickwitherows last blog post..The joys of wearing socks all day then putting shorts on…
I usually blow a few minutes at Drudgereport, then roll over to Collegehumor.com to read their weekly articles like Parents Just Don’t Understand which involves readers posting stupid things their parents do because they don’t understand technology…see following…
My mother in law called me to let me know that when she tried to send me an email it came back undeliverable. She wanted to know if my computer was turned off.
From Erin C.
I told my parents I wanted the new MacBook for school. Two weeks later I received “Macs for Dummies” in the mail.
From Steven, Cal State Long Beach
Whenever my mom finds a website she likes or wants to visit again, she copies the address and pastes it in this word document she has. The word document is 4 pages of website addresses. The best part? It’s titled “Website Favorites.”
From Alex, Sierra College
Also Hulu is excellent for blowing hours on end if you’ve got the time.
Between Digg, Boing Boing (and Boing Boing Gadgets), Lifehacker, IO9…well, you get the idea: my Google Reader is rarely empty. When I’m having a REALLY slow day and do empty all the non-podcast feeds, I move on to podcasts (like TWiT or TAL).
As a last resort, I can almost always lose myself in Wikipedia, starting with a person, movie, book, something like that and just keep digging further down through the related links.
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This is me every single day for about 6 of my 8 hours. I constantly check my usual sites and then like a lot of others head to Wikapedia or IMDB. That or I just bring in a book.
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I love IMDB!
I don’t usually have much free time, but…
I get up at 5am, do two loads of laundry, wake up the family at 6-ish, check email, make breakfast, do the whole errand run thing, then come home and check email/post blog ( if I have one), do some photo work while eating lunch and then I crash—taking a nap until about four or five in the afternoon.
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@patrickwitherow – yeah, wikipedia is a great idea. Also, there is that game “the 6 degrees of wikipedia” that would be a good time killer.
@mackalicious – that sounds hilarious, but they blocked that from here at work so I can’t see it. Those examples are hilarious though!
@Jason – Digg and Lifehacker are probably my favorites of all the sites I visit. And yeah, several podcasts from the TWiT network grace my ears during the day.
@nandango – good call with IMDB! I love looking up actors from my favorite shows and seeing what else they were in
@Scottie – your tasks are actually noteworthy and meaningful! I would LOVE to have time for a nap during the day here!
OOOoo, and adamriggins.com is a good way to make 10-15 minutes disappear. You should check it out.
well, of course it is. thanks!
YOU HAVE COME TO THE END OF THE INTERNETS! CLICK HERE TO RESTART!
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O NO!!!!1!!one11!!
Looks like someone is ashamed of their feeds….hmmmm…. Is there something you wanna talk about Adam?
no, I had just read all of them. You still at the Apple Store?
Digg is a great way to waste time!
YouTube can be funny. Sometimes I look up old TV shows I used to watch in the 80s or 90s.
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They block YouTube here at work, so anything I want to watch on it has to wait until I get home