photo credit: laura padgett
Whether at home or at work, I usually browse the internet instead of going for a short 5-10 minutes break.

I always feel that browsing the internet in my down time allows me to relax and better focus on my work; I generally feel more productive.

Surfing the net allows me to :

• learn something new
• it’s more exciting than chatting up a colleague – especially when the topic usually tends to be “work”.
• bring myself back to work easily.

However, I never had any proof to tell this to anyone – not my supervisor who thinks my idle time is spent simply “Googling”.

Now I do: Researchers at the University of Melbourne found that rather than waste time, e-breaks increase concentration and productivity.

“People who surf the net for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t”, says Dr Brent Coker, from the university’s Department of Management of Marketing.

According to Coker, the internet is a remedy for lapses in concentration, which can occur just 20 minutes into a task.

“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration. Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, let the mind rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work”.

Even when I’m transcribing at home I tend to check my email, my RSS reader or simply surf the net instead of getting up and going out the room etc to get back into the zone.

At the very least I always have Google home page open when I transcribe. For researching.

Surfing is the perfect antidote to wasted time.

It makes me more productive and creative without leaving my workstation – which is important when you want to get things done and not just put in the hours.

Do you have any productivity secret to share? Please do if you have one.

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