Aah. I really feel like writing something serious today. Probably something deep and philosophical – something that will make my readers stop dead what they are doing, and think.
I open my laptop, power it on , curse the multi-core processor for being slow, and wait. Finally. The home screen shows up, I eagerly type in my password and crack my knuckles. Man, this is going to be a good post. I finally get a few hours alone, no noise, no distractions.
I launch Chrome. “Most Visited” – gmail, facebook. Aah…tempting. Just a few minutes to check my wall, maybe. The newsfeed floods my screen with posts – news articles, memes, pictures, some one liners, more memes, dumb opinions, some more memes. 3 notifications, wonder who. The thing about messages from long lost friends who find you on facebook is that there’s no such thing as a quick hi – I am in the middle of a rather happy reconciliation with such a friend, when I notice a little red light going on and off out of the corner of my eye. Not now. I realize I’m now giving programmed responses to this chum of mine, my mind being more preoccupied with who could be messaging me on my smartphone.
Aah..I can’t take it. I do a quick butchering of the English language with a brb to my friend, and unlock my phone. Again, a volley of notifications flood the tiny screen of my phone – new emails and chats. I might as well have told my long lost facebook buddy to fuck off, I realize. This new tributary of distractions was going to take me a while to meander out of. I see a few emails from work – priority one. I take my time to type out replies, and move on to some personal emails. A sale on RayBans, an hour left to get a pair of Aviators for less than a hundred bucks. Damn, I need my credit card. I put aside the laptop and fish for my wallet. I find a note sticking out of it, hastily scribbled on a postit – Renew Library books. What books, I cannot remember. Maybe next time I need a reminder to read the damn books. I put my phone aside, making a mental note to reply to those chats on my phone.
I renew my copies of Time Management for Executives and Think and Grow Rich from the library website on my laptop, and close the tab. My facebook tab has its cursor still on “brb”, and it’s been over forty minutes. So much for reconnecting with my long lost friend. Giving up on that relationship, I pick up my phone again and catch up with my chat notifications. I’m just about to move on to the sunglasses sale when a calendar notification pops up – “Manager your life – Step 1: Write down time goals for daily activities” – one of the dumb reminders my past self has naively set for me from that Time Management book. That guy never learns. I dismiss the reminder with a condescending smile. The facebook newsfeed on my laptop scrolls down with new updates from my favorite television show, I notice on my periphery. An hour or so later, still confused about the nature of the smoke monster, I realize I’m hungry. I get a sandwich and take a bite, when the bright glare of the mid afternoon sun hits me square in the face. My sunglasses! Shit. That dumb tv show just cost me a hundred and fifty bucks. Even as my phone starts blinking again, my irked brain starts to see a pattern here.
Each distraction had branched off into a new one, and another, and another. I realize I am so far from what I set out to do that it is impossible for me to even try to allocate time for anything anymore. These distractions were making me dumber and less productive than a five year old. I don’t think I have ever had to set this many reminders for anything in my life when I was younger, and I remember learning a lot more and interacting with a lot more people. It slowly strikes that the constant barrage of distractions costs me dearly. Not just in terms of money, time and friends, but possibility. The possibility of seeing something through to the end and reveling in that joy.
My thoughts are interrupted by a reminder from my phone. “Write blog post.” I smile to myself and dismiss the reminder. Maybe tomorrow, then.
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