How Much Time Do You Spend on the Internet?

In this 2010 comScore Media Matrix survey, it was found that average Americans spend 32 hours a month on the Internet. My age group (35-44) spent the second largest number of hours per month 37.4, while users age (45-54) top the scale at 39.3 hours per month.

I've been thinking lately about how much time I waste browsing the Internet. What would I do with the hours I fritter away each week? Write, research for new projects, monitor investments. Whatever I spent that time on would be more useful than checking our local news sites and email for updates.

I find when I am pushed to the breaking point, so overwhelmed I don't know where to turn, I waste more time online. That's not unusual. It's been shown that one of the reasons we procrastinate is because our schedules are too jam-packed. We need time to wind down. We need to stop saying yes to every volunteer opportunity that comes along. We need time just to snuggle up with our kids and let them know they are loved.

I would probably be amazed by how much time I spend online each week if I tracked it for a month.  How much time do you spend online each week? How much is work related and how much is leisure time? Are there places you can cut back so you aren't browsing the Internet so much?

Tracking Your Time Will Make You More Productive

It seems wrong to mention a Wall Street Journal article on Thursday instead of Wednesday here, but it works in perfectly with this post. In the Monday, April 2, 2012 edition of The Wall Street Journal, H. James Wilson, senior researcher at Babson Executive Education, states that encouraging workers to track what they are doing makes them healthier and more productive. Wilson opens his article with this statement:

"Imagine how much better workers could do their jobs if they knew exactly how they spend their day."

I talk about productivity and tracking time in articles for Writer2Writer here and here. This seems so simple, but there is resistance to it:  if I am overwhelmed, how can I waste time writing out what I do each day? The reality is that because you don't have a clear idea of where your time is spent, you really can't see where time is wasted. You keep running in the same circles without finding a way out.

Wilson's article goes on to talk about auto-analytics, which are devices that help users, "gather data about what they do at work, analyze that information and use it to do their job better." Now, this won't work for the average stay-at-home mom or writer, but tracking your time isn't that complicated. I haven't done it for a while, and suddenly I find myself overwhelmed with no idea how to rein in the days that are flying by. So, I plan to go back to my old model--steno notebook and pencil. You can also track your time in a spreadsheet to be green and have less paper flying around. You can view my sample of a list here. If you're interested in reading Wilson's entire article, click here.

How do you keep track of your time? What do you think your biggest time waster is?