Going online these days can be very time consuming. First you thought you just need to check on your email and Facebook status but before you knew it, you’ve already spent hours in front of your monitor, clicking endless links, reading blogs and watching videos. Technology is good but it can also be your biggest time waster if you’re not careful.

I once stumbled over a video blog by the famous blogger Darren Rowse who advised bloggers to stop reading his posts and go ahead and start writing. I chuckled when I watched it because I thought it was  a smart way of saying that people need to stop looking for blogging tips once in a while and just start writing. The same thing could be said for those who simply surf the web for information and leisure. Stop following those links and go ahead and do what you’re supposed to do.

Below are some very simple tips you can do to maximize your time online without sacrificing everything else:

1. Subscribe to Email Alerts or feeds so you won’t forget the site you vowed you’d check everyday. Checking your favorite websites one by one is a time waster especially if your internet connection is not fast (which is often the case with some internet providers in the Philippines).  But what’s more annoying than that is finally landing on the site (after 5 minutes of waiting) only to find out that there’s no fresh content for you to read. The solution? Subscribe to email alerts and check your email regularly before going to any other site when you’re online. Saves you time.

2. Subscribe to Youtube channels. Surfing thousands of videos on Youtube is fun but most of the time you land on a fan made video with crappy quality. By subscribing to trusted channels, you make watching videos easier.

3. Use Alltop. If you don’t know Alltop, it’s time you check that site now. This is your alternative to email subscription. If you don’t want your inbox to be filled with updates from different websites, you definitely need to use Alltop. It’s a site aggregator that you can customize yourself. For example, you want to have regular updates about Photoshop and marketing blogs. You can just register for a free account and choose the blogs you want updates from. Whenever you visit your site, you will find all the latest posts from those blogs. No email subscriptions, no worries. It’s pretty neat actually, you should try it. Check my Alltop page and see what I mean.

4. Forward your email accounts. Most of us have more than one email account, one for official use and the other to fake our identities (come on, admit it!). Usually, people don’t want these accounts to be associated with one another but in the interest of saving time, you can forward the emails from Account A to Account B without actually opening Account A. This feature is very prominent in Gmail so if you don’t have Gmail yet, you better get one. Trust me, the more you use the internet, the more you feel the need to forward your emails.

For webmasters and web developers, this is very useful to keep track of your emails from different websites you created. If you are using Google Apps mail (which is powered by Gmail), this feature is a must.

5. De-clutter your inbox. I’ve actually written a post on this at my other site at Everything Digital. Cleaning up your inbox can reduce the time you spend sorting through emails you don’t need. Turning off unnecessary notifications from social networking sites is a first step.

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