Do you find that you spend a significant amount of time in forums when you should be working? As I work mostly from home posting on forums is about the the most outside contact I get day to day, but I find I end up reading too many postswhen I should be working. How do you manage your time or do you just end up ina forum and before you know it, it's dark outside.
I find that forums take up a significant part of my time, but had always planned on that being the case. As I am a complete newbie to the webmaster scene I always new that I would have to spend a considerable amount of time reading and learning the tricks of the trade. The recent PR update leads me to believe that it has been time well spent.
Padawan, Yes, I do not deny that forums can be beneficial on both knowledge and PR. But, there comes a point where you spend too much time in forums rather than doing actual work.
That happens to me a lot. I intend to go in quickly to see whats going in and before I know it my day is half over. But at least I'm learning a lot. Now if I could just find the time to put to use what I have learned then I should be rich.
Some times it's like I live at message boards! For about 10 days I hardly posted at my own boards, and guess what, I got more webmaster related work done!!!! Imagine that!!!!!
Yep, way too much sometimes. Every so often I have to ban myself from forums in order to do more website stuff.
Maybe we can ask Shawn to code a time-lock in there. You can enter the time you are willing to spend on DP in your CP options and the moment you go over it it bans you for two days so you can get some work done. If you stay under the limit you may come back in 5 hours or so. It would be beneficial for me I only frequent this forum (the only otehr forum I have a log in is OsCommerce but more for troubleshooting than anything else).
I follow Threadwatch, SEO Book and the SEW blog to stay up to date on the important stuff [cuts down on forum time] and visit the forums when I'm feeling chatty or need a question answered. I find threads with minstral or compar and a few others when they really get into things interesting, but a lot of the other posts are pretty light on a lot of the time. Maybe a list of acomplishments for the day would be helpful for you, everytime you invest time in something list it off in a word doc... then at the end of the day you will actually be pretty suprised how much you do get done.
I've just recently had a major over haul of what time I spend on what. I was spending far too much time on forums which was great for learning stuff but I wasn't getting much done. I reckon I'm on the forums maybe 2 or 3 times a week now. I'll pop in the odd time to see if anyone has replied to my posts as well.
Get a job in the construction industry, hell I can give you guys that are forumed out a job moving bricks around in a wheelbarrow and lifting them up on the wall for the masons to lay. That is 12 hours less a day to spend on forum for the all of you, plus the hot Sun here in Florida will be good for you, I will even spray you down with the water hose we use to mix the concrete to keep you from perishing from heat stroke PS: All interested members please send me a PM, you can start Monday Morning
Just want to lend a hand to those that are suffering from forum brainlock Weirfire, a few good days on the job with the crew will set these guys straight
If I find myself spending a lot of time in the forums, I call that a good day. Since, I learn so much from others, who take the time to post about their experiences, and knowledge. I love forums. Ok, now time to go calm down. tom
lol Tommy I have in fact learnt a great deal from these forums however their is a balance that must be gaged between spending time on the forums and actually putting it into practise. It's easy to fall into the trap of spending all your time chatting on forums and not doing any work.
Just remembers guys, I am always here to offer help, just let me know when you are done with forum and want to bust ass on the Brick Crew breathing dust, water and sand all the day long. If that does not work out your forum problems Minstrel may be able to help, but give the Brick Crew a few weeks and you will not have to pay Minstrel $150.00 an hour for help. PS: Hell we pay you also at the end of the week plus heal you
Amen! Sometimes after reading several posts, my head is filled with ideas how to 'upgrade/repair' current projects, and ideas for new projects. Sometimes I actually have to keep a notebook of good ideas so I don't forget, before I get time to put them to use. Life is great.