The most productive ways to spend time on the Internet

Last year, it was reported that adults in the U.S. spend an average of 10 hours and 39 minutes in front of a screen every day. That’s almost half of each day spent staring at a cell phone, tablet, or computer.

Instead of wasting these 10 hours and 39 minutes of your day scrolling through social media or texting with friends, engage in one of these productive activities on the Internet:

Network on LinkedIn

You know that pile of business cards you have in your bag or briefcase that you’ve collected at industry events over the last several months? If you want to be productive, start going through the pile and connecting with people on LinkedIn. Networking with potential clients, wholesale distributors, or potential employers is always a good use of your time on the Internet.

Learn something new

There are plenty of ways that you can learn new skills for free on the Internet. Want to learn a new language? Try Duolingo. If you want to learn something specific, go to WikiHow and see if the topic has already been covered.

If you want to learn new skills that will help you grow professionally, try taking a course on Coursera, which is a website that offers inexpensive courses on everything from business to neuroscience. The website has partnered with some of the top universities in the country, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, Vanderbilt, and Yale, so you don’t have to worry about the content being outdated or irrelevant.

Get inspired

Pick a TED talk and start watching. These influential videos feature a wide variety of speakers discussing anything and everything you can possibly imagine. Choose one that interests you, sit back and watch. Watching a video may not seem like a productive use of your time, but this isn’t like watching a cat video on YouTube—Ted Talks are informative, enlightening, and thought provoking.

Do logic puzzles

Search for logic or crossword puzzles on the Internet the next time you feel like you need a break from work. How is playing one of these games productive? It has been scientifically proven that these games boost your brain activity, improve memory, concentration, and processing times, and leave you feeling accomplished. If you’ve reached a point in your day where you feel mentally or physically fatigued, it may be helpful to take a short break to do one of these puzzles. This may give you the boost that you need to power through the rest of your day.

Industry knowledge

Regardless of what you do for a living, it’s important to stay on top of what’s going on within the industry. If you have free time to browse the web, spend it looking for articles about your industry. Learn as much as you can about new companies, trends, and industry predictions so you can hold intelligent conversations with your peers.

Are you productive on the Internet? Tell us how you spend your time surfing the web in the comments below!

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.