How to prokrastirovat effectively: 6 useful online services

Procrastination is a phenomenon whose victims are all, even animals cannot withstand it. Several years ago, Tim Urban vividly described the problem in the pages of his blog, Wait But Why. And since procrastination is inevitable, it is worth trying to benefit from it - I have compiled a collection of six online services (and their alternatives) that will help you learn something new, even when there is no strength to work.

Lumosity : online games and brain training

The industry of cognitive simulators (services for “brain training”) has been actively developing in recent years. One of the most striking projects is the Lumosity service, whose users can play online games that are specifically designed to develop memory and other cognitive functions.

Before using the service, the user asks the user to specify data about the field, age, education, profession, and also about what time of day he works most productively, whether he does sports and how many hours he sleeps. Based on this data, a program is generated that includes several games to determine the basic level of the three cognitive abilities - mindfulness, memory and flexibility.
')

To increase involvement in the service, gamification mechanics are introduced: users see an average indicator of their mental qualities that can be “pumped” and competed with other members of the community.

Despite the fact that there are studies that cast doubt on the benefits of using cognitive simulators, this is still a rather interesting way to kill time.

What else : there are Russian analogues - Wikium and Brainapps services .

Voriginale : watching movies and learning English

The Cinema Original service allows you to watch your favorite movies and TV shows in good quality with interactive English subtitles.

For each film and series shows the level of language proficiency, which is necessary for understanding. The developers have implemented a player with a lot of convenient features. For example, when you hover the cursor over a word in the subtitles, the video stops and its translation is shown, pressing the space bar displays all the latest lines - you can start watching from the one that seemed incomprehensible. In addition, the film is accompanied by a mini-dictionary with vocabulary, which is also broken down by difficulty levels.


In addition, there is the possibility of adding unfamiliar words to the dictionary, which is synchronized with the application for training in memorizing.

The project is being developed in partnership with the Skyeng English Learning Service, which provides technology for effectively memorizing words. To work using the platform Vimbox .

What else : useful lessons (including video) for learning more than three dozen languages, in addition to English, are collected by the BBC Languages project.

Spreeder : increased read speed

On "Habré" there were interesting articles about how to quickly increase the speed of reading. This is a useful skill that helps to master more important information in a short time. The Spreeder service allows it to develop - it supports various file formats for import. In addition, there is a simple web application with which you can practice your speed reading. Example: this is how the process of training reading an article from Habr looks like:


What else : on TheoryAndPractice published a selection of five methods and services to improve the speed of reading.

MakeUseOf : useful IT lifehacks

On the resource MakeUseOf regularly published useful life hacking, allowing more efficient use of modern technology. For example, on the site you can learn how to properly set up a “smart” thermostat so as to achieve minimal energy consumption, which old versions of Google’s Android applications will soon stop working, if they are not updated, etc.


Also on the site is published information about the lucrative offers for the purchase of software, gadgets or online courses. For example, it can be used to buy access to an online course on “ ethical hacking ” for $ 17.79 instead of more than $ 1200.

What else : the WonderHowTo resource is an aggregator of useful and interesting videos (10 ways to breathe new life into the old drive).

" Recruiting.ru ": keyboard trainer for learning the ten-finger method

Website from the creators of the program "Solo on the keyboard" - it presents different versions of courses for learning to type on the keyboard in a blind way. First, beginners are invited to take a test on print speed, after which you can start training. For more advanced "students" there is the possibility of competition among themselves.


The project site says that the average print speed after completing one hundred exercises of the course is 250 characters per minute, and students begin typing blindly within two weeks.

What else : on the Sense Lang website, a special simulator is available for learning typing; another simulator was created by the developers of the VSE10 project.

HTML Academy : Learn HTML and CSS Online

The service helps to master the layout even to those who have never dealt with the web before. On the courses, you can learn the basics of HTML and CSS for free: practice your markup, working with layouts in Photoshop, building grids and decorating decorative elements.

Learning is like a game, making it more efficient. For example, in the course on transformations (changing block sizes, turns, distortions, displacements), the magician performs the necessary actions, who first trains to perform basic techniques, then fights with enemies and eventually meets the megaboss.


The courses themselves are fairly light, but at the end of each one there is a more difficult test.

Courses help not only to usefully kill time and acquire new knowledge, but also - with due perseverance in their studies - even change their profession .

What else : Codepen service is very useful in learning of layout and programming, which helps to visually see how this or that piece of code works.

And how and where do you usefully kill time?