Steven Robbins here. Welcome to the Get a Done guy's quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Online is the greatest place ever. We no longer have to do stupid stuff like move our bodies or think.

We just stare at a screen and mindlessly follow our friends' recommendations on books to read,

who can get through more than two pages at a time, anyway, music to listen to, and major life decisions to make.

Thinking is so, so 20th century.

Yet we have to do it.

We have to write, research, do our jobs, often on the very same machine that's trying

to lull us into a mindless vegetative state where we become nothing but a feeder system for the

gaping advertising maw that is the internet. Here are some quick and dirty tips to be

focused and productive, even at your computer. Tip number one, never follow ads.

The holy grail of the Internet world is supposed to be targeted ads.

These are ads that appeal to exactly what you want at the moment.

So, of course, it makes great sense to give you the ad alongside a news story you're reading

for research, or alongside the email you're using to communicate with your coworkers.

After all, it's in context, and you're thinking about the topic.

Yeah, you're thinking about the topic.

Until you see the rats and frats and targeted ad, then it finds the target, square in the

middle of your frontal lobes.

Rather than finishing your research or concentrating on your work problem, you zip off

to follow the

targeted ad.

Seven purchases, four review sites and 19 articles later, you finally remember you were trying to do

...