Sometimes we all sit at our computers and pretty much just look, like you are lost in space. It’s not because you are bored, it’s likely because you are stuck in a routine. You play games, check your email, Facebook, Twitter, email again and so on. A routine is OK if you are happy with how things are going but you really need to keep looking and trying new things. The way to try new things is to get out of your routine from time to time.
For me, since I make a living "online", I venture into places that have interesting and new things. aka, not the same old, same old.
So for me, these are many of the sites and services that I hit up from time to time to discover new and interesting things.
Alexa has a toolbar service. When people download it and use it, this allows Alexa.com to track what people are visitng for websites. Long story short, they take URL’s and rank them based on what is getting hit the most and in return, provides the Hot URLS. These become important news stories, new gadgets, new interesting websites, products, services etc.
I personally use Modzilla Firefox and use the shortcut (Ctrl + left mouse click) which opens what you click in a new tab, without leaving the screen you are on as I browse the list. When I see something in the list that catches my eye, I use the shortcut and click and keep going through the list. When I have a bunch of tabs opened in my browser, I start reading the ones that I clicked.
I run into many interesting stories I would of never seen. I run into may interesting sites, services, products I would of never seen if not using it. Check it out!
If you are a daily DotWeekly reader, you know I use this often. Google trends shows the top 20 most searched terms on Google for the hour, updating every hour. Sadly, not all that long ago, Google Trends showed 100 results, then was cut down to 50 and now is at 20. Still an interesting place to find Hot Topics.
Digg.com offers up things from around the web that people basically "vote on" by digging a story they liked. With many people digging the same story, the higher up on Digg this story goes. In short, you can read several pages in and find all kinds of interesting reads.
The nice thing about hitting Google Blog Search is, not all these blogs are included in Google News. You will see many different things in the blog search then the normal Google News section of the site. On the left side of the screen, you can view blog postings based on categories that best fit your interest, you can also do a search based on keywords. If you do not want to search based on keywords, hit up the Hot Queries section on the upper right corner. The hot queries is really part of Google Trends.
This is kind of hit or miss. Lately the site has been full of Twitter related sites but is slowly fading away from all Twitter and getting a good mix again. If you visit the site often, you will want to checkout mainly the Today (5). If you only visit it from time to time, hit up the tab Top 10. You will see the most popular (voted on) sites and again are likely to discover something new.
Now that is only 5 things that I suggest you check from time to time if you are bored or feel your brain is stuck in a rut. So Bookmark this page on DotWeekly and if or when you feel yourself sitting and looking at your computer screen with a blank mind, visit this posting. What you do when you checkout any of these sites/services is up to you. Do not let your mind only focus on what is written on the sites, but also learn from some of the things that are ON the site as well. New techniques used, discover why the thing you are reading is so popular, how you found it, what made you click to read it and so on.
Learning is the name of the game. Trying new things allows you to learn new things. Keep your mind open and think outside the box. Trying and failing is better then doing nothing!
