It doesn’t matter whether they’re old or new. Habits are habits, and oftentimes, they die hard. A lot of people these days are hooked to social networks. Not a problem most of the time, but if you work from home or telecommute, then it could have an adverse effect on your productivity. Take Sethi’s case. He’s a blogger for Hack the System and he didn’t like the fact that he spent most of his time chatting on Facebook or reading stuff on Reddit.
So he hired someone off of Craigslist to sit beside him while he worked and slap him when he went off-page. I kid you not. This is what his ad actually said:
I’m looking for someone who can work next to me at a defined location (my house or a mission cafe) and will make sure to watch what is happening on my screen. When I am wasting time, you’ll have to yell at me or if need be, slap me.
He got a lot of slaps (hit the break to watch a video of him get a huge one across his face) but his productivity improved. In fact, it quadrupled. I guess despite its craziness, it actually worked.
VIA [ Dvice ]