Meryl's Notes Blog

IttyBiz offers six excellent tips for finding four hours in your day. Successful freelancers must balance their time as not working = not earning money. This is especially true for those who have lives outside of freelancing and value sleep. The Internet unquestionably provides valuable resources for helping our business, but it easily steals your productivity time if a site or Web-based application gets their hooks in you and won’t let go.

It happens to me on occasion especially when the creativity levels are low and uncooperative. But I also take care in avoiding sites and applications that will lure me in if I dare venture there. Twitter and Second Life are two examples. When I first heard about them, I took a quick look to learn about them to keep up with what’s hot.

Before checking them — I put up a warning flag in my brain because I knew they stole productivity time based on what I had heard. It’s OK not to participate in the latest greatest of everything online. I had to learn this in the mid-’90s when I used to buy the latest techie stuff. By then, new products came out and in droves. It would’ve put my bank account in danger.

Good sites and content give you an idea of what you could get into if you click a link or check a recommendation. If you decide that you just want to satisfy your curiosity and spend only a few minutes on a site before visiting, it’ll be easier to pull away rather than let it trap you.