Speaking of ennui, I'm getting a little bored with my otherwise awesome job, and I just haven't found the right diversion to help get me through it. In fact, I've actually been reading a lot these days about being productive and managing distractions at work. Living in a digital age, it is very tempting to spend time that should be used productively on dubious activities, such as reading or writing suggestions for self-managing your ADHD. Given that this blog is all about how to stay perpetually entertained, my recommendations may be a bit unorthodox, but I think I've hit upon two really good ones.
Don't Even Try
By far the most effective option. Goal achievement tends toward 100% as your target tends toward 0. I like this method because it's so easily implemented. Even a child could do it! Leave up those email clients, click through the wikipedia trails, play some youtube on your second monitor, check ze tweets, make sure you don't miss any hilarious bargains, and occasionally think about the task at hand.
There are a lot of assumptions that have to hold in order for this to be a possibility:
- You can get away with this.
Just because this strategy is possible doesn't make it profitable. We all need to do some soul-searching to decide whether it's appropriate for us. After my own personal reflections, I came up with the following reasons why I don't want to live this way forever:
- The mind starts to develop a tolerance to distraction. Eventually, one web comic isn't enough for me. I start to figure out how to organized my daily bargains and internet radio into separate tab groups away from my work-related tabs. And then, whenever work presents the slightest complication or inspiration is slightly slow in arriving, I hit ctrl-pgdn like a junkie with a Hamilton. And I kind of feel like that's what I've become.
- I keep imagining a day in the distance future. I'll have a teenage son then, and we'll be locked in an epic power struggle of identity and ideals. On that day, in order to get the upper hand, I'll need to cash in all the moral collateral I may have amassed. The more I slack off today, the less I'll have to cash in on that day.
Keep a Rigid Relaxation Regimen Religiously
In the fine tradition of finding the one study to support the point you like, this research proves that internet use in moderation can actually increase your productivity! The mumbo jumbo about resetting your concentration after it starts to fade might be true, but I like to look at it differently.
My setup involves setting aside the first ten minutes of every hour as waste time. I let myself do anything from shopping to trolling technical help forums. But I have to get it all done in the space of time I allot myself. How do I enforce this? I use Joe's Goals for a little self-monitoring for now; maybe I'll write something custom for the task in the future.
The beauty of this system is that it totally mashes the working/wallowing switch in my brain; the fact that I need to fit everything into a specific window of time makes the whole process seem task-oriented. I'd like to watch youtube, but this personal email is really important. Don't bother me right now, these rss feeds won't read themselves. Oh, time's up! And I completely forgot to pay my credit card bill! That'll be first up next hour. And then, as I settle back in to work, no matter how daunting or tedious the task at hand seems, it's the only way to make the next fifty minutes go by any faster. That's right; getting actual work done is suddenly like taking a break from all the stupid odds and ends I've filled my free time with.
Really let that sink in.
There's absolutely no way my putative teenage son could possibly deny that this is a well thought out and upright course of action and that I am indeed worthy of being a role model.
