A New Way To Avoid Work While Seeming Productive
Posted on October 26, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Productivity
Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.
I have discovered a way to avoid work while telling myself I am actually working. It is so fascinating that I can jump down a new rabbit trail quicker than you can say “Peter Cottontail”.
The culprit: the views of Google Searches.
Getting Away From the Standard Google View
To see these views in action, do a Google search. At the top of the results there is a Show Options link. Click on it, and halfway down the left side of the screen you will see a grouping with four options: Standard View, Related Searches, Wonder Wheel and Timeline.
Related Searches
Selecting this option gives you a bunch of choices you may not have thought of. Click any one to change your search terms and go off on another rabbit trail.
Wonder Wheel
The wonder wheel shows your search with related terms as a graphical image. Click on one of the spokes, and your search term is modified. Perfect for going off on tangents.
Timeline
The timeline presents as much information as possible in chronological format. This is great for going back into history. My first timeline search kept me occupied for hours as I read Civil War-era accounts of the battles in my area.
These Google views are wonderful tools – don’t get me wrong – but they present a new way for me to get sidetracked very easily.
Photo by Bruno Girin
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Comments (2)
Wow, I had no idea there were so many possibilities with Google! (They keep me in awe consistently.) What a great way, as you said, to avoid being productive! But I can recall times where I’ve wanted information on something that was related to what I’ve searched, and now I see that Google provides a way for me to find out the information I want without actually knowing what I am searching for. The possibilities of technology really are wonderful, though somewhat frightening at times. Thanks!
I’m glad you found this useful. I often feel like I am the last to know about technology! I love the related searches (when I mean to actually use them, and not because I got distracted).