Procrastination

I’m lucky enough to have a job where I only work during term time (no, I’m not a teacher –that would involve being in close contact with children every day, no thanks). This means that I get three and a half months off during the summer in which I can do pretty much whatever I want. In the weeks leading up to the close of term I start to dream up grand ideas of what I’ll be able to do with all that glorious time off. I could work on some screenplay ideas, practice my French, work on improving my running speed and overall fitness, catch up on TV shows and films I’ve missed, catalogue my modest little library of books… The list goes on and on. Then my first week off rolls around and I inevitably fall into the following schedule:

7.45am- get up, but only because husband has to get ready for work and someone has to watch the dog

8.30am til 12/1pm- doze on the couch whilst half watching old episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD

1pm til 3pm- eat lunch/have a shower/take the dog out for his afternoon walk

3pm- decide to do something productive like work on some writing ideas

3.05pm- get distracted by the Internet

3.05pm til 5.30pm- become sucked into a StumbleUpon vortex

5.30pm til 8pm- husband comes home so I make dinner then we take the dog out on his evening walk

8pm til 1am- try writing again for about five minutes until I realise I need to research something on Google. Before I know it, it’s 1am and I’ve spent the past five hours reading about Lindsay Lohan’s latest situation whilst simultaneously watching videos on YouTube of sleepwalking dogs.

1am- go to bed, determined that tomorrow I will actually do something productive with my time off

The worst thing I could ever do to my productivity was install the StumbleUpon toolbar on my browser. Now every time I open up Firefox to quickly check my email the button is there, whispering to me- just press me once, it’s no big deal. Except once I start, I can’t stop. I’m convinced that I’m missing out on the most hilarious/interesting/life altering website ever if I don’t press the button one more time, even though nine times out of ten all I get is a recipe for muffins or a lolcat (this probably says more about my interests than StumbleUpon to be honest). Even now, as I write this, I’m considering opening up another tab and getting my fix.

I need to go cold turkey and just delete the toolbar. Right after I’ve pressed the button one more time.