Do you know what I love to do, oh my friends in the computer? I love to GET STUFF DONE. I get a rush from crossing things off my ever-present list. One day last summer Elwood came home from work and called in from the back door, "Hi, what are you up to?" I said, "Oh, I'm just waxing the woodwork. How was your day?" This is a memory that makes me happy. Why, then, did I spend so many hours last summer drifting around the internet, a memory that does not make me at all happy? I do not know.
A few days ago I was rereading an old post about sloth and alacrity and internet use. (If you have a blog, do you get lost in your archives? I hesitate to admit how much I love to read my old posts.) A few days ago I thought to myself, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not wrangling with that particular frustration right now." Today, though, I am wrangling with that very frustration again: big-picture grand plans for GETTING STUFF DONE, moment-to-moment decisions to goof around on the internet instead. (And knit. Nupps are addictive, it turns out.)
When I dug up the link I noticed that I was sleep-deprived when I wrote that earlier post; lo and behold, I am sleep-deprived today. Part of the sleep deprivation is my own fault, because I stayed up too late watching Call The Midwife and knitting. Part of it is that Stella had a terrible night last night. She sleeps a million times better than she used to (and I am SO grateful), but she is just not good at going to bed and staying there, asleep, until morning.
Maybe Lesson Learned #1 is that sleeplessness fuels computer drift. But Lesson Learned #2 (though I am not convinced it really merits that perfect participle, since it seems to be a Lesson In Progress Forever And Ever) is that computer drift fuels joylessness.
Earlier today I was drafting this post in my head and thinking I would call it Manifesto: no more wasting time on the internet! Ever! Diligence always! Finish All The Things! Even aside from the surfeit of exclamation points, I'm not sure that's the post I want to write.
The resolution I described in that earlier post has stuck, and it has been a fantastic decision. It needs some tweaking, though. I'm not quite sure what to resolve about computer use in my office. I'm not sure how far to extend my earlier resolution about making sure my responsibilities at home are in good shape. But I have a pile of grading that needs to be finished, and a Thanksgiving dinner that's not going to cook itself. This is a state of affairs that calls for A Plan.
Any ideas? How do you keep from wasting time on the computer?
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