Monday, December 10, 2007

Unproductive? Yes, Please.

I recently moved from Des Moines to Illinois and, over the past week, have discovered the challenges and rewards of working remotely. (I'm still working full-time as an editor for Lexicon but am working from home ... I have more structure in my day than a freelancer would, but it's just me in my sunny little office, so I'm just waiting for distractions to beckon.)

So far, I've managed to be incredibly productive, in part because we're too darn busy for me to slack off. But, just as there is in any office setting when a deadline looms or in your college dorm room when there's a paper to write, the temptation to fall victim to lures of You Tube or all the darn RSS Feeds I subscribe to is there.

So I have two questions to pose to you, whether you're working full-time, freelancing, or going to school. The first is, where do you go online when you want to be productive but you need to stop staring at that article, if only for a minute? And—let's be honest, more importantly—where do you go when you don't want to be productive?

5 comments:

Lexi said...
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Lexi said...
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Lexi said...

Apparently, I've broken Blogger with too many tags. What I meant to say was that the Times videos are brilliant 5-minute distractions, while Style.com, Slate, and Zillow.com are perfect ways to wile away an afternoon.

AND congrats on and welcome to the work-at-home gig. I advise scheduling reasons to leave the house every day; your thighs and social life will thank you.

Bridget Nelson Monroe said...
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Bridget Nelson Monroe said...

Oh wow, you moved? I'm a teensy bit jealous you get to work from home. The boss told me to leave early and work from home this afternoon because it's snowing here. I got so much done! Don't know if I could keep it up five days a week, though...

So, websites I like: the news sites (nytimes.com, cnn.com, latimes.com, local faves like twincities.com and desmoinesregister.com and so on). Gawker's too depressing, but sometimes its sister site Jezebel is interesting.

As for the absolute time-wasters...anyone a fan of The Babysitter's Club book series? I know you're out there. I'm in love with a blog that reviews the books with a "what the hell were we thinking when we read these?" attitude (claudiasroom.blogspot.com). There, I just confessed my embarrassing guilty pleasure.