Five Things To Consider Before Sitting In Front Of A Computer

Original source : http://www.bytecolumn.com
Posted : June 2012
Author : Prashanth

Are we all productive when we are supposed to be? Do we finish all the allocated tasks within the time frame provided to us? Why do we need to unnecessarily burn the midnight oil when deadlines crush us? What can be done to avoid such situations and be more effective, productive and lead a healthier lifestyle? Read on for the answers.

1. Plan your scheduled time

Let’s just face the fact that sitting in front of a computer for a very long time is absolutely harmful for health. So, plan so as to be as efficient as possible in front of the system. Focus should be on finishing the work as fast as you can. Planning and scheduling your activities helps you to maintain your work efficiency. This in turn brings you lot of time for your other pursuits such as interaction with family, friends or engaging in your favorite hobby. Not to mention an immediate drop in the time spent in front of your computer!

2. Don’t think in front of a monitor

If you want to do coding or any other activity that requires lot of thinking on your part, you’d be better off using paper and pen for this rather than sitting in front of the computer and thinking! This is because there are a lot of reasons for you to get distracted from your thinking straight away, such as browsing for parallel ideas, taking short entertainment break which may turn out to be a long one eventually and/or losing your line of thought frequently and thus increasing the over all time taken to get back to thinking about the relevant topic again. Also, try not to spend too much time not knowing what to do! If you think you have a period of idle time in front of the computer, remove yourself away from the screen and try doing something else instead. Take a tea break, have a chit-chat with your co-workers, make a phone call to your loved one or a close friend. After all, there is a vast world outside awaiting you to step-out. Surprisingly, these kind of irrelevant things often give you “Eureka!” moments.

3. Keep cyber-entertainment to a fixed time frame

Of course, being efficient doesn’t mean sacrificing your social networking or gaming time. Remember, you have lot of things to get distracted about when sitting before a computer. You may start browsing a site for “15 minute” entertainment break which may extend upto one or two hours. Because of information overload and increasing competition between websites to get your attention, everything online is focussed on making you stay more time surfing the net rather than doing something more productive. This is the reason for setting a time frame and adhering to it with a disciplined mind set.

4. Do light exercise

You’d always be benefitted from this. Doing light exercise daily will stimulate your brain cells to think clearly by increasing blood circulation in the body. Light exercise need not involve flexing your muscles and pumping weights (though this is of great benefit too). Even walking to the nearest water dispenser would make you feel a trifle better. What we are focussing here is stretching and/or little aerobic exercise. Recommended exercises include 30 minutes of walking per day, jumping rope for 15 minutes, doing light stretching exercises, gentle aerobic activity for 5 minutes and the like.

5. Listen to stimulating music

Listening to relaxing music has been proven to work wonders with your thinking capacity. Many of us fall victim to the oft-repeated saying, “Common sense is becoming uncommon these days!”. This is because of us not finding time to think and reflect on what we are doing and what the intended benefit is. Listening to gentle, relaxing and stimulating music while doing the thinking not only focusses your mind a bit more but also encourages you to spend more time on it. Too many of us have a wrongly preconceived notion that thinking and spending time with oneself is a waste of time. What with all the entertainment options that are available to us, our attention span is becoming small day-by-day.

~Blog Admin~