Switch off to Switch on

Are you guilty of hours of browsing aimlessly on the internet? You could be addicted – but you’re not alone. ALEX ROBERTS tells us how to remain productive at work – unmonitored internet or not

As I sit here, having procrastinated in the writing of this very piece which you are now so thankfully reading – I let the entirety of the last week pass by watching YouTube clips of how to make pasta salads in the shape of luxury shoes, talk show hosts playing sweaty, terrible basketball against politicians and watching a travel feature about the decadent possibilities of travel through Ukraine in January – I realized something: the internet, not even the lack of it, is currently at the root of the all my woes.

It got me thinking: Is the internet simply better at helping us slack off? Turns out, that may be right on the money. Apparently, humans happen to be incredibly talented at slacking off. So, is the internet without a doubt the most convenient thing in the workplace since color printers or merely the office worker’s greatest slacking companion?

The Art of Procrastination

One report from the American Time Use Survey noted that the average worker spends close to one working hour a day doing absolutely nothing. Yup, absolutely nothing! So, it comes as no surprise that this is largely due to having constant internet available to them. The same report noted that the harder one was inclined to work or to beat a looming deadline, the more time they averaged procrastinating and generally meandering around the confines of the internet every single week.In fact, so-called ‘workaholics’ tend to procrastinate even more.

Apparently the longer one was seated stationary in their office chair, the more time they spent investigating conspiracy theories about the Moon Landing on Reddit.

Social Media

Initially a convenient way to keep in touch with friends and family and swop photos, social media has morphed into a constant and overwhelming stream of information about anything from your favorite celebrities to a disturbing amount of cat videos.

Think about it, how long have you spent already on social media or gossip blogs online? If you’ve checked the news about 1500 times today already, that’s too many times? And do you really need to see how ‘lit’ so-and-so’s lunch was from three different angles or comb through all of the 22 selfies another so-and-so took on their vacation – and worse still, while at work? Could this be an issue of the modern condition? Are we as the working people of the world just doomed to an endless cycle of Buzzfeed quizzes about what kind of pizza we would be if we embraced our true selves? (Mine is BBQ Chicken by the way).

Well, the real essence of the problem is having the internet available to you at all possible moments of the waking day. Quite frankly, it’s addictive.

The numbers behind this are rather shocking. Yes, social media is very much a product of the last decade of technology, but still. A report from Statista indicates that in 2012, the average internet user spent 90 minutes on a social media platform every single day.

A mere five years later, in 2017 this social media figure had sharply spiked up to an astonishing 135 minutes per day! That’s two hours and fifteen minutes each day! Wow! Most people are awake 16 hours a day and eight of those hours are spent in the office. You’d have to estimate that at least one third of that time, or 45 minutes, is spent on social media while you’re in the office.

Is it any real wonder at all then why you feel like you’ve been under achieving at your place of employment? It seems to make a lot of sense. There’s a real disparity between just basic internet use and the use of social media, one of them is a modern function the other a modern addiction.

So, what could be the solution to this innate wandering on your timelines, feeds and homepages? Well, you could just log off. If you’re really trying to adjust the feeling of being lazy at work, it might be time.

A movement has begun where a growing number of people have started doing

an experiment known as asocial media cleanse. They simply (well, not so simply for some) stay away from social media for a certain period and note down the differences this makes in their lives. The results have been substantial; suddenly people report feeling more energy, better about themselves and their circumstances and are drastically more effective at getting their work done on time and up to their boss’s standards.

The fix seems easy enough. If social media is promoting you not to be at your ultimate at work, the solution is quite literally in the palm of your own hands. There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with the people in your life, maybe even a touch of gossip every now and again, but you must draw the line somewhere. 

If you absolutely cannot get through the day without looking at your social media, stop thinking about it as something that you just ‘love to do’. Or instead of going cold-turkey, wean yourself off of it disparity between just basic internet use and the use of social media, one of them is a modern function the other a modern addiction.

So, what could be the solution to this innate wandering on your timelines, feeds and homepages? Well, you could just log off. If you’re really trying to adjust the feeling of being lazy at work, it might be time.A movement has begun where a growing number of people have started doing an experiment known as asocial media cleanse. They simply (well, not so simply for some) stay away from social media for a certain period and note down the differences this makes in their lives. The results have been substantial; suddenly people report feeling more energy, better about themselves and their circumstances and are drastically more effective at getting their work done on time and up to their boss’s standards.

The fix seems easy enough. If social media is promoting you not to be at your ultimate at work, the solution is quite literally in the palm of your own hands. There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with the people in your life, maybe even a touch of gossip every now and again, but you must draw the line somewhere. If you absolutely cannot get through the day without looking at your social media, stop thinking about it as something that you just ‘love to do’. Or instead of going cold-turkey, wean yourself off of it.

Extract from The African PA Magazine

Thank you,

William Mwamgi.