the price of freedom

I've always had a problem with free time. My goldfish memory and general laziness often causes me to spend large chunks of time clicking around the internet, reading celebrity news and random wikipedia articles until I come to two hours later, wondering what the fuck I've been doing. It's kind of like an automatic StumbleUpon, except I'm terrified to download the actual toolbar because I know I'll never get anything done.

I still grapple with this issue on a daily basis, but one tactic I've devised is a To Do list made by a company called Cultured Code. They have an iPhone version too, which syncs to the Mac version (though not well), and it provides a remarkably satisfying "checking off" graphic whenever I complete a task. I've conditioned myself to look at the program every time I find myself without something specific to do, so I don't get lost roaming the internet.

Downloading (and paying for) this little program has probably created an aggregate 30 hours of productivity since the beginning of the semester, but I've noticed the effect is beginning to fade, especially when damn-near 100% of my time is unstructured, a la spring break.

This is bad. Very bad. I need to find some motivation, because if I have my way, career-wise, pretty much every day is going to be nothing but unstructured time. It's gotten to the point where I consider writing this blog entry to be a productive use of my time.

Resolved: every time I find myself not working when I'm supposed to be working, for whatever reason, I'm going to try a new strategy to cope. It might be going in the other room, it might be leaving my apartment, it might be drinking tea, it might be standing on my head for thirty seconds, whatever. Do something else. This is my pledge to you, the-one-person-who-still-reads-this-blog. Hold me to it.