I concluded my original post in this series with a description about how I use my internet time. Now, although 'internet time' was the lowest entry among my ‘priorities’, I'm here to talk more about it because, dear internet reader, I suspect the details might be of more interest than the ranking. Today, I’ve put together a few additional notes on what exactly I do while online.
First, I have a short list of news (‘news’) websites I visit every day – ESPN, ESPNFC, and the Wikipedia current events page. I also check the hourly weather forecast, organize any new email, and update my calendar. Then, I add new entries for the following logs – weight (pounds), running (mileage), biking (minutes), reading (completed books), and writing (minutes). Finally, I add any updates I might include in upcoming TOA proper admins. I do all of this the first time I go online each day and in total this routine takes around fifteen minutes.
Next, I have set routines I take care of once per week. This, again, is mostly a list of websites. I check a handful of bookstore calendars for upcoming author readings and visit a number of actual news websites (1). I also double check my basketball schedule to make sure I have the correct start time for that week’s game and verify that I have at least one week’s worth of TOA posts set for publication (‘publication’). This routine happens the first time I log in on a weekend and takes up to thirty minutes. If I sense I might end up taking longer than thirty minutes (which usually means I picked too many news articles to read) I’ll save the least time sensitive of the remaining work for later (2).
Finally, I take care of less urgent routines based on certain target start dates. I used to do these based on a given date (the 4th, the 12th, the 20th, etc) but I now do this based on the Satuday (first Saturday, second Saturday, etc) (3). For example, I usually check band websites for concert announcements on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Saturday of each month (used to be the 4th, 14th, and 24th of the month). On the 2nd Saturday, I log my monthly spending (used to be on the 12th). The full list is in my footnotes (4).
Once I complete all of my internet admin, I move on to time intensive projects. These include the obvious like answering longer emails, editing TOA posts, or simply entertaining myself. I also handle any urgent one-off projects during this time (such as filling out tax returns). The most notable of these tasks is a self-review of my internet routines. I do this once every three months (editor’s note: ‘a quarter’, according to the Business Bro) and it mostly concerns whether the timing I’ve describe above is appropriate for the needs of the task. It’s during these reviews that I decided to move my news website visits to once per week, for example, because I realized that I found out about the most important news through my daily Wikipedia check, my morning TV check of the local news, or through word of mouth.
Footnotes
1. The actual list…
Here are the bookstores I check for author readings:
Porter Square Books
Harvard Bookstore
Brookline Booksmith
Once Somerville (not a bookstore, but it seems to fit)
I also Google search 'Greater Boston author readings' along with the date of the upcoming Sunday for the Boston Globe's weekly summary of upcoming events.
And here are the news websites I review once per week:
The Irish Times
The Guardian
The Japan Times
Al Jazeera
The Associated Press (which I'm about to give up on)
The reason I only check these once per week is because I’ve found over time that this is the best balance between keeping myself in the loop without forcing me to read about the same topic more than once.
2. Special temporary exception
At the time of writing, I happened to be looking for a new job. This means I need to review job listings and complete applications. Ideally, I do this once per week but I break up the dullest parts into pieces just to preserve my mental health. This means I generally review emailed alerts from Indeed within 48 hours so that I can apply quickly to obvious opportunities. If an opportunity isn't obviously a good fit, I save it for a weekly batch application hour (usually Sunday). I space my visits to specialized job boards or company career pages to happen every seven to ten days so that I can have a n unhurried look at less direct fits while ensuring I catch anything I missed from the emailed listings.
3. Why Saturday?
I picked Saturday as my day of the week for two reasons. First, I tend to think about my internet time in terms of weeks so using a Saturday as the unit of recurrence is the best fit with my mental organization. Second, Friday is the day I spend the least time online which means Saturday is usually my busiest admin day in terms of organizing new email and catching up on what’s happening around the world. This means I’m already in the mood for admin and I find it easy to batch additional variants of this work together.
4. The week+ routines
1st Saturday
*Clear out lingering to-do items (email inbox, etc)
*Check band websites for upcoming concerts
*Check library accounts, Facebook, and LinkedIn (five minutes max)
2nd Saturday
*Budget, pay credit card bills, etc
3rd Saturday
*Check 'lingering thoughts' document (personal scratch pad)
*Check band websites for upcoming concerts
*Check library accounts, Facebook, and LinkedIn (five minutes max)
4th Saturday
*Check bank and credit card accounts for weird activity
*Check local rents
*Even # month - compare reading log to library checkouts
*Odd # month - various admin tasks like cleaning up Gmail contacts, etc
5th Saturday
*Save emailed files to Google drive (book notes, etc)
*Check band websites for upcoming concerts
*Check library accounts, Facebook, and LinkedIn (five minutes max)
