When you have a few spare moments, you might be wondering what else there is to do online besides get a dose of the daily news. If you’re not quite ready to delve into your busy working day, you’ll be happy to know that there are many ways to distract yourself. It just depends on your mood and what you’re thinking about.

The Productive Time Waster
If you want to do something with the time you waste, you might be interested in a site that offers online surveys. It’s usually free to sign up with most survey sites, and from anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes or more of your time, you can be entered into sweepstakes or earn points that can later be redeemed for items or cash. And you help companies perfect their products at the same time.

Just For Fun
There are literally thousands of web sites that can help you waste time and have a little fun while you do so. Sites like I Can Haz Cheezburger and its affiliate sites can offer a much-needed lift during a slow week or a bad day. But beware, sites like the above can contain material that isn’t considered to be in line with your workplace’s policies. So to surf carefully is the best advice.

Random Surfing
Who would have ever thought that random surfing could have structure? That’s exactly what you get when you visit StumbleUpon. This site provides an endless selection of random web sites that you can not only choose to view, but rate once you’ve viewed. But it might be a good idea to keep an eye on the clock while you’re using this time-waster, as you can get easily lost.

Special Interest
If you’re a foodie, a site like Pinterest may quench your thirst for culinary creation. You’ll find many beautiful images of dishes and drinks of all kinds, and you could very well walk away with a day, week’s or even month’s worth of new dinner ideas. The same is true if you type a random selection of ingredients you already have at home into the search bar of particular recipe sites.

Bad Customers, Good Laughs
If you’re thinking about getting into another line of work, you may be grateful for the work experiences you find at sites like Not Always Right, where employees post their conversations with actual customers. Warning: the results can be hilarious. And, they can also cause spontaneous gratefulness about the position you already have.

Of course, there are many other things you can do online that can actually help you to become more productive in the future. Seeking out new ways to organize the files on your office computer or discovering a great new font for that next presentation are just two ideas. But even doing things to help make your job easier can be just as fun as playing a game or reading bad dating stories. As most of us know, a simple web site search can easily turn into many sites being visited that you may have never even known were there.

If your office has strict rules about what you can and cannot do with their internet connection, you can save the recreational surfing for your lunch break, when you can take your personal laptop, tablet or phone with you and access a hot spot where you can surf to your heart’s content. Or, if you plan to surf the internet looking for ways to improve the way you do your job, you might consider discussing it with your boss beforehand to make sure it’s on the approved list of internet activities.

Guest author Donna Gamble works online, and occasionally has to grab a little downtime to clear her head, which spawned the tips in this article.  You can find information she has assembled to help consumers find internet providers in Oklahoma City.