The internet is a tremendous productivity tool. I use it in various ways to cram more in a day or week. It allows me to avoid traffic jams, visit my parent, spend time with my granddaughter and pay my taxes, just to give you a few examples.
When I started my present job in Richardson Texas the 25 mile drive to work was 40 minutes, but recently the journey has grown to 1 hour. By using my home DSL I totally avoid the drive at least a couple of days a week. On those days I do drive in I work from home during the rush hour and take the drive later when traffic is light. At 10 am or during the lunch hour the drive is 30 minutes. In one week, I can easily recover 2 ½ hours.
When visiting my parents who live in West Virginia, I work from a nearby Holiday Inn that offers free wireless internet service. The hotel staff serves me breakfast and lunch, while I work from the bar which is closed during the day. I set up my computer, fire up my Voice Over Internet Phone software, attach my headset and conduct all my business as if I were in the company or in my home office. Nobody I interact with knows, or for that matter cares, where I am. At the end of my day, I return to spend the evening with Mom and Dad.
My son who lives in Florida is equipped with internet service over his TV cable system. While visiting him and his family, I reroute the cord from his Dell to my laptop, shut the door to his computer room, and my conduct business, breaking occasionally to spend time with my two year old granddaughter who is naturally curious about what is going on in daddy’s office.
Doing my taxes over the internet using Turbo Tax has cut this once tedious task from several days to two hours. The Turbo Tax software, in and of itself, cut the time to around four hours, and by interacting with the internet I can save another hour or two by retrieving W2 and other information and even submitting my forms to the IRS on line.
These are just four examples where the internet has allowed me to spend less time doing more. I cut my time in the car, saved valuable vacation days by working while visiting family, and pay Uncle Sam with ease. My goal is to find other avenues to further exploit the productivity of the internet, and I bet there are numerous undiscovered ways. I just need to find them.
