Are you a computer-worm? Do you
thrive on a computer 24/7? A �computer-worm� is analogous to �book-worm� � a person who spends most of the time working on
a computer. Do you expend most of your time reading or writing emails, chatting
with friends, watching movies, listening to music, cyber-window-shopping, etc?
Do you relegate your important tasks of completing a school assignment, working
on a contingency project, etc to realize later that you spent the prime-time
idly? In this article, you would discover few ways of improving your cyber-life
� how to make your
working on a computer more useful and much more effective.
Technology revolution has
supplemented the ease and increase of computer usage. The overall at-home
global active internet use for a number of selected countries grew by
two-thirds of a percentage point from February 2004 to March 2004
(Nielsen//NetRatings). Switzerland exhibited the largest growth rate at over 3
percent, while U.S. added the most active Internet users over the month. With
this enormous increase in internet usage you have to keep the following 5 ideas
in mind that would help increase the efficiency of work that you do while on
your computer off-work.
1) Chat or email kills your time-
Avoid opening a chatting
application, or an email application as your first window. When you find one of
your friends on the chatting window (or email from one of your friends), you
inadvertently start conversing with the person. On the other hand, if you do
not find any friend, you search for a new chat-buddy. In both the cases you
deviate yourself from important tasks. This hinders you from working on essential
activities that you intended to do when you started the session.
Instead, make a habit of
completing tasks that you planned before opening a chat window or an email
window. Treat yourself with a chatting session (or an email session) for
completing the daily (important) tasks.
2) Audio speakers add to your entertainment-
Turn on your pair of audio
speakers, if you have one. Listen to online news, success stories, motivational
speeches or jokes while working on your important tasks.
Online news is becoming common
day after day. You can view and listen to news on many websites. You would find
it easy to access online news channels if you have a �superpass�
with Real Networks (http://www.real.
com/superpass/). Nevertheless, websites like MSN (http:// msnvideo.msn. com/, ABC
News (http://abcnews.go. com/) offer
feeds to news and other interesting stories available for free download.
3) Do smart-browsing not the hard-browsing-
When you read on the internet, do
it intelligently. One way of intelligent reading is to increase your
vocabulary. Look up difficult words in the dictionary when you read documents
on the web. You can use innovative internet tools like XemanteX (http://www.xemantex .com) that
provide an online-running-dictionary. You can read through the document with a
built-in dictionary. Just double click the word to get the meaning on the same
screen.
4) Online games as concentration tools-
Play online games. Games not only
give you entertainment but also help you increase your concentration. There are
many websites that offer free subscription to the games on their website.
Perform a Google search on �free
online games� that would
bring up thousands of resources. Enjoy playing a game, improving your personal
skills at the same time.
5) Help your mind concentrate-
Split your entire sitting into
various sessions. You would be able to give out more every session. Take a
coffee or tea break every 45 to 60 minutes. This would help your mind free up
its resources and get back on track after the break. Moreover, this would help
you avoid narrow thinking. One gets to think through a narrow channel when deep
concentration.
Okay, I told you 5 simple and
common ways to make your off-work computer life easy. Try them out and feel the
difference. You would be happier and feel more accomplished. As you know
internet has redefined human�s
life. Computer, which was used only by intellectuals and elite a few years ago,
is a basic requirement for a common man now. To add fuel to the fire, internet
has supplemented its power transforming them the best communication tool.
Instant messaging, emailing, electronic news, etc allow for fast and easy
communication among the internet users. Very soon, computers would be indelible
parts of our life. You should realize that the tremendous power that this
internet has can only be harnessed when it is put to use in the most efficient
way.
