Every so often here is a news report that suggests that office workers are wasting increasing amounts of time on the web. Usually the story is inspired by the latest internet fad — whether ebay, myspace, or facebook. In response, employers have taken to installing software like Websense on their networks, which prevents users from using more than a pre-allotted amount of time on such sites. Many sites are blocked entirely.
In my experience, this kind of thing is counter-productive. The internet is a big place and no blocking software can hope to get it right all the time. Some extreme bestiality sites go free (I assume), whilst sites that are really useful to my job are impossible to get at. The simplest way to avoid Websense is to use a proxy, which is an enormous timesaver, much better than going through the rigmarole of getting the IT department to give me authorization.
Unfortunately, the worst kind of procrastination doesn’t occur on prohibited sites at all. It is that procrastination that occurs mindlessly that really seems to cause the problems. The automatic checking of email, the refresh of your social network friendslist, the quick scan of the Guardian whilst a program on your computer is loading. It is this kind of procrastination that fills my head with unnecessary noise.
So over the last couple of days I have been experimenting with a simple firefox extension that blocks sites that you don’t want to visit. It is like Websense, but with the added advantage that you make the choices. Like stopping smoking, stopping such idle habits is incredibly challenging. The brain — so used to its daily routines — seizes up and is unable to process ideas.
Nevertheless it seems to be going fairly well so far, if only because my procrastination regime was so well orchestrated that I have effectively lopped off the entire tumour without allowing it to spread all over the internet.
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