Written on 8/11/2008 by Abhijeet Mukherjee, of Jeet Blog. 
Unlike in an office where the boss is usually sitting on your head, a web worker has nobody looking over their shoulder and dictating the terms of their day. This liberty is one of the primary reasons behind taking the plunge and web working full time.
However one soon realizes that working from home is
no less stressful and the lack of fixed working hours often results in unproductive days where you put in more hours to accomplish less work.
Being productive is undoubtedly the largest challenge for a web worker. The Internet unending in
usefulness and
distraction and as such, there is so much to do in the limited time period of 24 hours. Hence it's important to utilize those 24 hours efficiently and get more work done without jeopardizing the more important things in your life, like your health and
family.
Here are some tips which could prove to be helpful in your endeavor to become a more productive web worker.
- Manage Your Email
No matter what work you do on the web, email is usually your primary source of communication. And if you spend the entire day checking emails, replying to them or just looking at your emails, then you are really not getting any important work done. You need to accept the fact that it's just fine to have some unread emails in your inbox and you can deal with them later.
For more email management tips, read my previous post where I talked about 7 Ways To Manage Your Email Like An Expert.
- Make Your To-do List Doable
Most of the web workers are in the habit of making long to-do lists and end up accomplishing not even half of those tasks. They even tend to try out each and every to-do list application available thinking that the app would help them complete those tasks.
No matter how many schedules or to-do lists you make, you are the one who has to complete the tasks. If you procrastinate or just overload yourself with a long to-do list then not only does it leave you with more tasks for the next day but also adds to the stress factor. Hence it's important to do a ruthless analysis of your capabilities and limitations and assign yourself tasks which you can actually complete in the day.
My suggestion - just open a notepad and write 3-4 main tasks and save it with the name ' Today ' or go with a dead simple to-do list like Now Do This.
- Health is Wealth
It's true and it becomes more important when you are working long hours, sitting on your chair with your eyes fixed at your computer screen and without any access to the fresh air outside. There are no two opinions on the fact that web working, if not done properly, could result in some serious health issues. And if you're in bad shape, you cannot expect to be productive at your work. So take care of your health. Go out, get some fresh air, take a walk, exercise, hit the gym, do yoga or just do anything to compensate for the loss in movement of your body parts since you quit your day job.
- Identify The Right Tools
Since you are a web worker, you should definitely be one of the advanced users of the internet who knows the tools which will help you in your job and make your work easier. However, the Internet is an ocean of web apps and just like there are thousands of apps which help you make to-do lists, there are hundreds if not thousands of apps for every single task you aim to accomplish. Hence it's important to identify which of them are the right ones for you and will make you more productive. You should do some initial research and also take advice from experienced web workers in your field to know which are the best tools for the trade.
- Manage Time Wasters
As I mentioned earlier, the internet is unending and sooner or later you will fall in the trap and spend your day playing online games, participating in social networking or just spending time on twitter. It's not that these things are useless but getting addicted to them will suck your time like anything. Hence the idea is to manage these time wasters effectively and get the most out of them in a fixed interval of time.
I hope this post helps you to increase your productivity as a web worker. What other ways you adopt to be more productive as a web worker ? Let's hear about them in the comments.
Cheers,
Abhijeet
译文:
提高网络工作效率的五个建议
作者：Abhijeet Mukherjee 来自：Jeet 博客 2008.8.11
不像在办公室里，老板常常坐在你的头顶上。做为网络工作者，没人审视你肩上的责任，安排你的日程。这种自由是投身全职网络工作的主要原因之一。尽管如此，很快你就会意识到在家里工作没压力，工作时间不固定，容易导致工作效率低下，你花了越多的时间，完成了更少的工作。
高效，对网络工作者来说无疑是个巨大挑战。网络无休止的有用性和娱乐性，让我们在有限的24小时里，有太多要做的事。因此，高效的利用这24小时，做更多的事，却不损害生命里更重要的东西，比如健康和家庭，这是很重要的。
这有一些忠告，对与想成为高效网络工作者的你，可以证明是有用的。
不管你在网络上做什么工作，电子邮件通常是你通讯的首要来源。如果你花了一整天的时间来查看邮件，并一一回复，或者只是浏览邮件内容，那么你真的无法完成任何重要的事情。你必须接受这样的事实，在收件箱里有一些未读邮件是正常的，可以稍后再处理。
想知道更多的邮件管理建议，可以阅读我以前的帖子：像专家一样管理邮件的7种方式
大部分网络工作者养成了制定长期计划，最终却一半任务都没完成的习惯。他们甚至试着去实现每一项计划，认为这种尝试能帮助他们完成这些任务。
不管你制定了多少日程和计划表，你还是那个完成这些任务的人。如果你没按时完成或者只是超负荷完成一份长期计划表，那么你会给第二天留下更多的任务，并且给自己增加压力。因此冷静的分析你的能力和局限，制定出你一天里真正能完成的任务，就很重要了。
我的建议是，只需打开记事本，写下三到四个主要任务，存作名为“今天”的文件，或者做个简单呆板的计划表，比如现在要做的。
这是真理。当你长时间工作，坐在椅子上，两眼盯着电脑，没有外边的新鲜空气进来的时候，这就变得更重要了。如果你做的不恰当，会引起一些严重的健康问题。如果你健康状况不佳，就别指望高效的工作。没有比这两个观点更居于网络工作现实的了。所以保持健康身体，完成了一天的工作后，就到外边去，呼吸些新鲜空气，散散步，做做运动，去健身房，做个瑜珈，或者做点什么别的来补偿一下劳作的身体。
从你做一名网络工作者起，你就该理所当然的成为网络前沿使用者之一——知道什么对你的工作有帮助，并让你的工作变得轻松。尽管如此，互连网是个网络应用的海洋，就像有成千上万种应用帮你制定计划表，如果没有上千个应用给你想完成的每项任务，也有上百个。因此从他们中找到，适合你的应用，让你的工作变得更高效，就显得重要了。你应该做些初始的调查，从和你同一领域，经验丰富的网络工作者那里听取建议，他们知道哪些是用来交易最好的工具。
就如我之前提到的，网络是没有穷尽的，早晚你都会掉到这个陷井里，成天的玩网络游戏，参与到社区网络里，或者把时间花在。。不是说这些东西没用，而是一旦沉溺其中，他们会没命的吸食你的时间。因此，好主意是有效的管理这些时间吞噬者，从他们中的大多数脱离出来。
希望这篇文章能帮助在网络上工作的你提高效率。有没有经你实践过，比这更高效的建议呢？在评论里留言吧。