December 15, 2010

Seriously, I need to learn my lesson

Ok. I need to come up with a rule. I am not allowed to go waste time reading and posting comments on political sites anymore. This became very apparent when I spent far too much time recently arguing with someone who feels that there is NO POVERTY in the US. None. Zero. Zilch. Not a problem. Doesn't exist. Why? Don't get me started on THAT one. Suffice it to say that our "discussion" wasn't exactly fruitful.

For some reason I am drawn to this practice during particularly busy times of the semester. Hmmm. Why could this possibly be? It appears that there is a high correlation between "the need to finish writing a paper" and the "desire to fight the good political fight via some random political blog". What does it all mean?

It's all about procrastination. Period. And a recent post over at another anthro blog made me realize that this is a rampant social problem. Well, it's not exactly rampant. Or is it? I have no idea. Anyway, some of the solutions there seem like they MIGHT JUST WORK.

My solution? Maybe, in order to get away from all of the wonderfully ridiculous online distractions, I should start writing on one of these:

Image from Flickr user "mpclemens." Found here.

I mean, how could anyone POSSIBLY get distracted while writing on one of those machines? No internet, no political sites! Perfect, right? Well, unless the TV is on in the other room. Or "This American Life" is on NPR. Or maybe I need another quick sandwich. Or it happens to be snowing outside and I need to clear the driveway and break some icicles off of the edge of the porch so I don't lose my eye like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story."

Yes, I do realize that I am procrastinating at this very moment. The plague continues...

5 comments:

The Ghetto Intellectual™ said...

thanks for the tips. i am could have published mounds of articles with the time i spend on FB. but i do learn a few things and get ideas for essays. so perhaps thats the trick--ensuring that your arguments are somehow productive and useful for your scholarly development. GI

The Ghetto Intellectual™ said...

p.s. I gave up on Google Chrome. I have a Macbook. I liked GC overall but it was chronically unstable and crashed frequently. I finally gave up and went back to Firefox. GI

Anonymous said...

You need to set up dead lines. Everything distracts. Right now I have more or less four years of full time research and I feel that I am far less productive now than when I suspected I was gonna be unemployed right now. I am "wasting" too much time on my blog now (but not really since the böog is used to post my current ideas and the hope is always to get some feedback).

Jérémy M said...

Hahaha !
THAT was funny. Thanks for th...

Wait a minute. What am I doing here ?

Ryan Anderson said...

@ GI: ya, i agree with you about chrome. i am sticking to firefox as well.

@ johan: deadlines are CRUCIAL, and the only way i get anything done. still, i manage to waste time. also, i like how you think about your blog as a place to work out ideas.

@ jeremy: watch out!!! it's all a big time-sucking TRAP!