There's a common myth that the entire Web 2.0 movement doesn't have a big impact on B2B and their enterprise purchasing decisions. Nonsense. Workers are knee deep in these sites. According to a new survey by Clearswift, some 43% of employees access Web 2.0 sites multiple times during the work day. Think they're publishing too? Nod. Studies have shown that most blogging takes place during the day.
More stats from the survey....
* 51% spend an hour or more a week on Web 2.0 sites; 13% spend five hours or more
* 46% have discussed work-related issues
* 46% regularly access Wikipedia during work hours
* 50% believe they have a right to use work computers for personal internet access
This survey puts numbers on what you probably already know: though we think of the web as a massive productivity enhancer, for some people it’s also a great time sink. This can leave some web workers caught in a contradiction: if you invest effort in the perfect system for getting things done and saving time, only to use up that time again in endless tours of blogs and chats and social sites, have you really gained anything?
Clearswift, of course, would like you to consider their range of policy-based filtering solutions to tackle this problem, and they’re a reasonable alternative for large corporations. But independents and those in small companies might want to think about setting their own personal acceptable use policy for the web. If you feel like your own life is turning into nothing more than an endless treadmill of chasing the latest online trends, consider these tactics:
Set aside particular blocks of time for the more distracting activities in your day, instead of letting them intrude constantly. Do you really need to be in constant touch with your e-mail, RSS feeds, photostreams, and Twitter messages?
If your day is broken up into major tasks, reward yourself for a task well-done with a session of goofing off. But no cheating: finish the task first!
Remember that it’s OK to say no. You don’t have to sign up with the latest cool site just because all the cool kids are doing it.
Take some time to evaluate the things you’re doing online “for fun,” and stop doing the ones that aren’t fun any more.