Downsizing...

[martinlivings]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I spend (or possibly waste) my time, especially online. A goodly portion of every day get eaten up by a variety of things online, particularly:

- LJ f-list
- LOLCats (and related amusements)
- Cracked.com
- web comics (about a dozen of them!)
- Dark Horizons entertainment news
- Facebook (primarily playing Countdown)

And probably many more. How many of these things are actually important? Any of them? And are they more important than getting some writing done?

I don't think so. And, with my new job absorbing most of my time, I think it's time to downsize.

I don't want to drop off LJ altogether. But I think I read too much on it. So it's time to do that most dreaded of all things, and cut back my f-list. I have to be brutal. I need to regain some time for writing. At any cost. Minimise the distractions. When I sit at my computer, my first reaction should be to open the Work In Progress, not spend an hour trawling through f-list posts. Bad writer, no biscuit!

Anyway, that decision is easy. The next - which to keep and which to cut - is hard. Like choosing which fingers to chop off.

Comments

[halspacejock.livejournal.com]

LJ allows you to add a bunch of friends to a filter in a batch - you could set up a 'pushed for time' filter and add the most often-read ones to that. Gives you a subset without having to actually ditch people.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Or to change the default he could put the shortlist on his 'Default View'...

[halspacejock.livejournal.com]

You can also bookmark the filter instead of your regular friends page, and that way you just get to see the posts in that category. It's quite useful, because if you dump someone from your FL they get an email telling them of the dumping, whereas this way they're still on your main FL but you don't have to read them.

(A couple of people in my FL posted NSFW images in the past, and my PC is in the lounge where the kids can see the screen. Instead of dumping them I just filtered their posts out. Everyone's happy...)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

*nod*

I meant to link to this page rather than faq 102. If you name the filter 'Default View' you don't even need to change your bookmark, but I guess that's neither here nor there.

It's just a pity that doesn't affect what other people see on your flist if they're not logged in as you. I don't /really/ want the NSFW stuff showing up if my parents happen to stumble across it. (ecstasy fuelled orgies ftw..)

Hmm - perhaps that's an argument for bookmarking a different filter instead - and also linking that from one's sidebar.

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I got halspacejock's comment and you mixed up and have been trawling your friends list for NSFW images... *sigh*
:-)

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Awwww :)

Well, FWIW it was fliboing who was having an entertaining evening after Fairday... Oh, and who has also just started up a blog you may be interested in.

[mikandra.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, you're not even on Authonomy. Talking about eating up time!

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

..oh and no offence taken if you cut me btw.

It's probably time I did a cull myself.. (*eyes off the page of doom warily..*)

[1phish2phish.livejournal.com]

I'd understand if I was one of those to get the downsizing f-list chop.

[thefon.livejournal.com]

Try unplugging from the internet for a few solid hours of work, that's what I do. Even for an hour. The other thing that works for me is starting the day by doing some work, before I start checking blogs / comix / email / ...

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I reckon give Izz your password so she can log in, and change your password to something you don't know, and then don't log in!

Just go cold turkey for a bit.

Or... dump every one, and when you feel like checking in on someone, then go and read their blog and their blog only, so you don't get caught up in all the small stories out there.

[hkneale.livejournal.com]

I understand. This is why I don't get on the internet some days--too many things to do that are more important.

Ditto Simon's flist filter.