Timewasters are always present in every workplace. Today, our modern timewasters are the online ones. However, instead of letting these biggest timewasters distract our work performance, we can turn them into powerful productivity tools.

Below are a few of the biggest online time wasters along with some suggestions on how to turn them into productivity tools.

Emails

Whatever your E-mail provider be, may it be Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook and any other email service provider, if you are to spend so much of your time on it; you are definitely wasting your time.

Generally, E-mail is an absolutely necessary tool for online workers. It only becomes a time waster when someone cannot manage their mail effectively or spends too much of his or her time on non-work related email messages. Instead of doing so, make use of your e-mail as a tool to communicate with your boss for work updates and the like. Know the right time for work and your private matters.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging using ICQ, IRC, IM, AIM, GoogleTalk, Skype and more is a great time wasters for every workers. Most of the workers cannot resist the urge of replying to instant messages, which will turn into an unproductive chitchat when too much exchanging of messages is done.

However, you can and you should make your chat client a powerful tool to be productive instead of wasting your time on it. Send instant messages to your colleagues only when you need immediate response to get your job done. In this way, there will be no more delayed works piled up on your table.

Google Reader

Google is an RSS Reader, so along with Google Reader, Bloglines and Thunderbird are also an online timewaster under this category. If you use Google Reader and are subscribed to many RSS feeds sending you more than a hundred feeds daily, you surely will spend so much of your time reading those.

Turn this into a productive tool by using an RSS reading tool for keeping yourself updated with the latest news connected to your job. If you are a blogger, you can subscribe to RSS feeds under your niche or category. In this way, you will be updated with the latest.

Blogs

The popularity of blogs made every worker gets interested in reading each that is in their feed. Many of them spend so much time reading archives and comments.

However, you need not to worry because you can turn this time waster into a productive tool. Read blogs with contents aiming to enhance your performance. From the various blog niches, like business to cooking to human resource to real estate and more, choose those that are in line of your job and you surely can get informative articles that will help you improve your performance.

Forums

Like blogs, forums are also one of the biggest online time wasters of today. People spend so much of their time reading on new posts, replies, as well as posting new threads and replying on threads. It works closely similar to chatting on instant messengers.

Instead of having Forums as a time waster, you can turn it into a productive tool. Choose those forums that you think you can get more information, tips, and advice about your field of job. Like blogs, forums also come in different niche or topic. You will see forums about information technology, Forex trading, small business and more. Join in forums that are related to your job and you surely can enhance your knowledge with the information given by members who are knowledgeable enough about the field.

YouTube

Watching videos is fun. However, many are into watching videos on YouTube even during working hours, turning YouTube into a time waster.

However, if you are wise enough in using YouTube, you can have it as your very powerful productivity tool, too. YouTube has millions of videos in it including those informative tutorials of different topics. If you are trying to do or make something but do not have the idea of how to do it or how to start with it, simply make a search in YouTube's search bar and you surely can find helpful videos.

Conclusion

Being online is now a necessity and an important act especially to those who are responsible enough and know how to use the internet. It is a matter of choice if you want it to be your time waster.

Jessy is a productivity expert for Creditc Card Finder, the free platinum card comparison app.

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.