ciml - 3:01 pm on Nov 20, 2001 (gmt 0)

beasscr, like Caine I used to pull 100+ hour weeks, but I think the real trick is to gather and eat separately. i.e. go hunting for new information, saving/printing all the documents, links etc. on the way. Then take the good ones away and read them. Do the same for reporting and promotion; check rankings and target vocabularies for a whole load of Web sites, then go optimise them before checking again.

This has three advantages - firstly you can keep following your trains of thought during the 'gathering' phase without interruption. Eventually you keep finding the same information on a particular topic at which point you can relax. Secondly, you can concentrate on the 'eating' phase without getting side-tracked (as you followed the interesting tangents previously). Thirdly, you get a nice interface between the two phases, which you can use for drinking and winning money at cards. ;)

A recent stay in hospital provided a marvellous excuse for uninterrupted Google research. I had read the early Brin/Page papers umpteen times, but an excuse to lie back and read, read read was needed for it to make sense. Oh, and there’s always a pile of doc’s by the pillow. YMMV

Calum