No. I’m not talking about taking on 30’ waves. I’m talking about surfing (the internet) with purpose – with intention.
Trust me; I’ve wasted my share of time with somewhat mindless surfing. Haven’t we all?
When you surf with intention, you not only know what to looking for – but also how to use what you find to accomplish something important.
A good example – I just finished surfing for new resources to list on Philanthropegie – an online platform for helping philanthropic dreams come true. I found 15 great new resources in less than 30 minutes.
Here are some suggestions for more productive surfing:
Focus – make sure you know what you want to accomplish before you start. It’s just too easy to get distracted without something to keep you focused;
Discriminate – establish criteria that will help you find the best resources. You likely won’t have time to save and dig in on all that you’ll find so be discriminating as your search;
Don’t dig in yet – I believe that one good source can often to lead to another. Look for links on one good site that point to another. When you find something that fits your criteria, just file it in a bookmark folder dedicated to this subject;
Okay, now you can dig in – it’s important to schedule the right time to dig into these resources. You need time that will allow you to read, absorb and think creatively about what you’ve found.
Steal… and then streamline – I like to use Evernote to capture the very best content. This way, instead of having to dig through sites and pages, I have everything I need in one place.
Take action – remember, this was surfing with intent. That means you did all this to help you accomplish something important. So, get to it.
Happy surfing!
