Need help to keep from wasting time?

Are we really busier than our parents were when they were our age? Do you ever find yourself making an excuse to friends or family that you cannot make a dinner or party because you are really tied up on emailing, twittering, visiting social websites or spending hours or cools sites like digg....you know what I mean!

As different social networks and/or social websites are created, we have part of ourselves that feel an obligation to respond to others, check in the updates of friends and family that we don't always get the chance to visit or even pick up the phone to call.

I remember in my early teens, there was no "www". Yes, there were Bulletin Boards where you could dial in on your external 56K modem and post on subjects and maybe do a little coding magic to make words show up, disappear, and show up again. After an hour or so, you hit all the BBs and read the posts. Heck it was so slow, that sometimes you would just get fed up and go back to playing video games on that Commodore64. Yikes.

Now, there are tons of addictive online social networks, such as YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc. Although these are great sites, and the technology behind them is pretty darn good, they are all time consumers that can impact you from doing other things that may be a little more productive.

We have all been there and get caught up on site and bam, hours are gone. Sometimes we just need a little kick in the arse to keep us disciplined. If you can't do that, then here's the perfect tool to manage that. It's called, MinutesPlease.

MinutesPlease is an online app which allows you to set up time restrictions for any website you visit where you know you spend um, too much time on.

I'm am guilty of this. I won't name the sites, but they are sites that I could (and do) splend hours and hours at night. I could be sleeping!

So, here's how this nifty little innovative site works:

1. Go to www.minutesplease.com and enter the URL of the website you want to minimize your time on. Set the time limit and that site will only stay open for the amount of time you specify. It's even got the option to give you warnings when your time is about to be up. Kind of like when you are at the car wash and it starts beeping at you to feed it more quarters if you want to finish rinsing your car from all the soap suds! Once your time is up, the window (or tab) is closed.

What I really like about the site is that, there is not signup, no account information, no email to submit and it's FREE. Check it out!

Lastly, take a day or two off from email, websites, blogging, updates and just take the time for yourself to enjoy things that matter to you outside of the web world. Spend time in person with the family that loves you, the true friends that will always be beside you, pets that will always look up to you and take a nice walk in your neighborhood (get that fresh air). Heck, pick up the phone and just give them a call to let them know you are thinking about them. That means more than any email, twitter, or update about yourself.

Mother's Day is tomorrow, so remember all the friends and families that are mothers and be sure to let them know they are in your thoughts.