When you first sit down at your computer and open up your web browser, what do you see? Google? MSN? Facebook?

I used to have my email inbox set as my homepage, but I discovered that caused me to get distracted, get sucked into answering email (or deleting junk newsletters I’d signed up for) followed by any number of minor tasks and activities referred to in those emails. When I came up for air I’d suddenly become aware that hours had passed - and I’d accomplished nothing.

The primary reason for this was a lack of concentration and focus. I’ve since become more directed in the time I spend online, and while I am sure I still waste time from time to time, here are some strategies I use to improve my concentration online.

How To Improve Concentration Online

• Track Your Productivity At Your Computer - I’m a firm believer in “what gets measured gets managed.” Until I started tracking how productive I was at my computer, I had no way of knowing for certain where my time was going. In an 8 hour day, how much time did I spend on email? How much time did I spend mindlessly web browsing? I couldn’t answer those question quantitatively, but fortunately for me there are solutions out there. I use and recommend RescueTime’s free time tracking software. It sits in my system tray quietly collecting data for me, and uploading my data to their website. I can then review their reports see where I’m making progress - and where my weak spots are. Some specifics it tracks are which websites I am spending too much time on, how much time I spend on various tasks (emails, instant messaging, social networks, etc) and even what times of day I tend to be less productive. Which leads me into my next point …
• Don’t Browse As Soon As You Get Home - One thing I noticed while tracking my productivity online with RescueTime was that right after I came home from work or from going out with friends tended to be especially unproductive. Why was that? I suspect it’s because I wanted to relax a little, unwind and turn my brain off for a little while to recharge. There are more productive ways to do this though than sitting around idly on my computer. My solution? As soon as I get home, I practice playing guitar for 15 minutes. It gets my mind off work, allows me to relax a little bit - and in the long run is probably better than watching hamster dance videos. My most productive time online? Early in the morning, as soon as I wake up.
• Turn off That Second Monitor - There are times when a second monitor is great and improves productivity - but sometimes having two monitors is distracting if you’re trying to focus on a task that really doesn’t need two monitors. Unless you are actively using that second monitor for research or some relevant documentation, odds are it’s filled with low priority tasks and entertainment that distract you. Do you really need your email account visible while you’re working? How about all those chat windows (a prime use of my second monitor)? If you’re not using it, turn it off until your next water break and focus on the task at hand. If you’re like me, you’ll be amazed at how often you look over to your second, blank screen out of habit.
• Turn Off Your Computer and/or Monitor When Not In Use - When I”m trying to focus on a task, I turn off my monitor and lock my computer everytime I get up. I stretch out, get a drink of water and come back ready to work. When I sit back down, I don’t turn my monitor back on until I’m mentally refreshed. If I still feel drained, I’ll go walk around for a few minutes, talk to my coworkers, etc - but I won’t let myself sneak over to Twitter “just to check up.” If I’m not ready to work, I don’t force myself - I let the work wait and give myself a few minutes to recuperate.
• Close Your Web Browser When Not In Use - Similar to the previous item, I (try to) make it a point to not leave my web browser open. If I walk by and my web browser is open, it’s easy for me to get distracted, sit down and browse - even if I was in the middle of doing something else. Remove the temptation by closing the web browser, so that if you do want to browse websites, you have to make the conscious decision to open it - and consider whether you’re opening it for productive or unproductive reasons. I don’t have statistics on it, but I’ll bet that the majority if people’s wasted time comes in the form of web browsing, email and chatting. Close those applications when you’re not using them!
• Don’t Leave Pages And Tabs Open for “Research” - I picked up this bad habit when I started using Firefox years ago, and I still struggle with it. Your tabs are not a to-do list, your tabs should not be items you are going to get to - they are distractions. If there are tasks you need to do at your desk, and you are using the tabs as reminders, write the tasks down, bookmark the page and close it. I constantly force myself to read, process or file all those tabs and close them. When a friend sends me an article to read on IM and I don’t have time to get to it right away, I don’t leave it open - I bookmark it in Delicious as a “someday” item and close it. It can get reviewed weekly with all the other articles I want to read. On a related note, don’t leave tabs open that auto refresh, especially if they show some kind of status or count in the title bar. Earlier today I closed my email account because seeing I had 12 unread emails was distracting me. They can wait.
• Take A Break Every 30-45 Minutes - I can’t speak for everyone, but I hit my limit after about an hour or so of straight work. My productivity slows, I begin to lose motivation and I’ve got to get up, take a break and do anything else - at least for a few minutes. Just getting up and stretching a couple times an hour can be enough to recenter you and focus.
• Sit Down with a Plan - Don’t sit down just to surf or see what’s new in your inbox. If you’re sitting down to read the news or your RSS feeds and unwind, sit down, have a plan, and barrel through some items in your feed reader. If you’re sitting down to process email, close everything else, take a look at your inbox and process your inbox. When I sat down to work on this article, I opened my web browser and have exactly two tabs open: the tab I am writing this article in, and my sitemap for easy access to references.
• Limit Your Access To Time Wasting Sites - I have a love/hate relationship with LeechBlock and so I am not using it currently, but I have in the past.
  

  LeechBlock is a simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.

  You can specify up to six sets of sites to block, with different times and days for each set. You can block sites within fixed time periods (e.g., between 9am and 5pm), after a time limit (e.g., 10 minutes in every hour), or with a combination of time periods and time limit (e.g., 10 minutes in every hour between 9am and 5pm). You can also set a password for access to the extension options, just to slow you down in moments of weakness!

  Another feature I like is that it can track how long you spend on sites, though I personally found the reporting wasn’t always accurate. I suspect that has more to do with some incompatibility with my extensions than an issue with LeechBlock however.

Focusing online is easier said than done - I’ve got a tendency to wander and can easily get sucked into vortexes like YouTube, Twitter, etc as well. We can limit our access via self control or Leechblock, but perhaps there is a better way. Another way of looking at it is, how can we begin effectively when we first sit down to work? For that, I recommend focusing with a start page.

A reader mentioned that she loved my inspirational quotes about life and had set the article as her homepage to give her some perspective every morning. I decided this would be a good opportunity to revamp my personal start pages as well.

The purpose of a start page is to provide a point of focus whenever I sit down at my computer. Many of our small activities we work on every day are part of our larger goals and purpose. Without constant reminders though I often get lost in the details and lose sight of what I’m doing - or why I’m doing it. For this reason, I use start pages as daily reminders. In the past, I’ve used physical pieces of paper that I carried in my wallet, used as bookmarks or placed at my desk. Today I’d like to share some of them online.

Here’s the full list of inspirational and motivational start pages. I’m going to continue adding to it. So far the ones I have completed include:

• Value Your Time - A reminder to value every moment.
• Be Grateful - We all have so many gifts and wonderful things in our lives, and some days I need to be reminded to be grateful for all I have. Has a great clip featuring Louis C.K. on Conan discussing how ungrateful so many of us are.
• Beat Procrastination with Action - Act now to accomplish what you want. Also contains a fantastic cartoon I found.

If you enjoy them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments, and I’m open to suggestions to make them more effective as well.