This time last year, i would have been playing call of duty 4 for a couple of hours a day. Nothing wrong with that, i can’t be working every waking hour…
I was also pretty active on forums like boards.ie and even social networks like bebo. Finally, i was spending a lot of time reading blogs and looking for new blogs to read.
Over the past year though, i’ve cut down on all of that. I play no games, ever. Not even solitare. Games are the work of the devil 🙂 they eat up time and you get zero reward for playing them – no money, no connections, no information. They just act as a stress reliever or entertainment, unless you’re a professional gamer of course or if you work for a company that is trying to encourage team work – in that case, games are much more valuable…
I hardly ever post on boards.ie these days although i do have the odd peek at what’s going on. I’ve racked up over 3,000 posts there but most of those were in my earlier days from 2003-2006 (when i started building my own sites).
Reading blogs has been hugely beneficial to me. It’s probably what got me interested in building websites to start with. My google reader has literally hundreds of RSS feeds in it, but these days i’ll rarely look at any. I keep tabs on people i know personally and one or two bloggers/blogs who i know will always deliver quality content. Rather than read blogs, i just use twitter these days. It’s quicker, it cuts out all the waffle and information comes to me rather than me having to get information myself.
Right now, i feel i’m in great shape in terms of work rate & commitment. I’m hungry to learn new skills and fine tune my existing skills. The quality of work i’m producing is getting better. I’m beginning to think with a ‘will this benefit me?’ train of thought rather than a ‘can this benefit me?’ train of thought.
- wifimapper.com is looking fantastic. It’s simple, it’s nicely laid out, it’s effective – does what it says on the tin.
- my .ie partnership with college pal leateds.com is also looking great. Again, does what it’s supposed to with a touch of class.
- my idea site is the simplest of the lot. Look at ideas, rate them & you or i can then start going about adopting the best ideas. So simple, but it hasn’t been done. It remains to be seen if people will submit their ideas, but even if they just submit their ‘bad’ ones i know for a fact it will give me more ideas 🙂
It is tough maintaining this work rate, but i’m determined to build up a routine and make it ‘normal’. That’s the key to sustaining it. Just like blogging once a day was a chore when i first started out, it becomes something i don’t even think about now 🙂
I want to get to the stage where i’m the guy who nobody can compete with in terms of work rate and commitment. The class and finely tuned skills will then come in time… it really is all about work rate though and turning unproductive time in to productive time.
they eat up time and you get zero reward for playing them
I have to disagree completely with this. you do get a reward…fun. and having fun is vital to doing productive work. you HAVE to have fun in your life…this feeds back into work.now, work itself should be fun, of course, but you can and should enjoy life outside of work.
yes, but they should be a 'reward' for work… the problem is they're addictive and when you're working for yourself, there's nobody over your shoulder telling you to get back to work
they eat up time and you get zero reward for playing them
I have to disagree completely with this. you do get a reward…fun. and having fun is vital to doing productive work. you HAVE to have fun in your life…this feeds back into work.now, work itself should be fun, of course, but you can and should enjoy life outside of work.
yes, but they should be a 'reward' for work… the problem is they're addictive and when you're working for yourself, there's nobody over your shoulder telling you to get back to work!
they eat up time and you get zero reward for playing them
I have to disagree completely with this. you do get a reward…fun. and having fun is vital to doing productive work. you HAVE to have fun in your life…this feeds back into work.now, work itself should be fun, of course, but you can and should enjoy life outside of work.
yes, but they should be a 'reward' for work… the problem is they're addictive and when you're working for yourself, there's nobody over your shoulder telling you to get back to work!