Here’s a tip specifically for writers. When I do online research as I’m writing, it’s a recipe for distraction. For example, yesterday I was writing an article about healthcare education, and I mentioned that masters-level nursing programs require far more credit hours than other healthcare master’s programs. I wanted to use a specific example, so the temptation was to do a quick search….but as we all know those quick searches turn into long ones! So instead, I inserted a note to myself: “insert specific example here–phys therapy/dentistry etc”–and continued writing the article. I did the same thing in about a dozen other places. Today, I’ll take some time to research the facts & figures I need.

I find that separating my writing & research like this helps me avoid wasting time online. During the writing stage, it feels good to complete the main part of an article so quickly. During the research stage, the knowledge that I’m so close to completion already keeps me on track. (It works best if you know the topic really well already and just need to look up something really specific, because otherwise you might find that you’ve made assumptions that research doesn’t actually back up!)

I’m lucky in that I have a card from Sprint with a contract from before they put a cap on it, but those are the prices everyone else has to pay.

I’m also a frequent victim of “tab overload” that Armen mentioned. right click – t – right click – t…

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