As many of you know, it takes a serious amount of time trying to come up with unique content for readers on a daily basis. Much of the time spent is reading RSS feeds through Google Reader, and perusing sites including Techmeme and Megite. While the job of a blogger can be streamlined, much of the focus is on timeliness. If you don’t get in on the conversation early than you might as well not get in at all. As a result many workers spend a chunk of their time at work browsing other websites. While I like to write my posts at night, and have them published throughout the day, many people choose to stay active in the blogosphere round the clock.

As a result of this constant attraction to social media and various websites that aren’t work related, productivity has decreased for many. Last night the Web Worker Daily released statistics on the topic. Surprisingly (or not), just over half of workers spend an hour or more a week on social media sites, and 13 percent spend five hours or more. Depending on what industry you are in this may be acceptable. For instance if you are an industry where monitoring buzz is important, then you should be visiting social media sites on a regular basis. Whereas if your job is in direct sales to executives, spending hours a week (or a day) on YouTube may not be the best idea. Either way, take a look at the statistics, they are pretty interesting.