Finding my groove
Procrastination. Thirteen million eight hundred thousand Google hits. The sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize you just spent 30 minutes on Facebook looking at pictures of someone you knew five years ago, and who you really don't contact. You just photo stalk them.
The irony is that productivity feels amazing (Wow! I'm getting all this stuff done! I must be superwoman!) whereas as procrastinating is basically kind of numbing (Hohum. I wonder if anyone has tweeted anything interesting. Nope. Maybe I should try and figure out what I want to make for dinner tonight...). Yet minutes and hours slip away in the grip of the ever-changing Internet.
In this truly interesting article (take the time to read it, even if you are distracted by something else), Nicolas Carr confirms the nagging suspicion I feel that my concentration has been shortened by the vast volume of information available on the World Wide Web. My mind darts away from whatever I'm doing, because somehow, no matter where I am, I am also thinking about something else.
But what can I do? I am Generation Web. I use the Internet to study, work and play.
I can try to find my groove, sink in, indulge in the fully concentrating on one single idea. Read a whole book. Wash the dishes without listening to a podcast at the same time. Try to understand my notes without looking up every single concept on Wikipedia.
Most important of all, I can realize when procrastination is inevitable, when the sun is shinning too brightly and I should be outside procrastinating by letting my mind and my legs run free.
Go and be outside.
But that's just my two cents.
- The Wild Bazilchuk
The irony is that productivity feels amazing (Wow! I'm getting all this stuff done! I must be superwoman!) whereas as procrastinating is basically kind of numbing (Hohum. I wonder if anyone has tweeted anything interesting. Nope. Maybe I should try and figure out what I want to make for dinner tonight...). Yet minutes and hours slip away in the grip of the ever-changing Internet.
In this truly interesting article (take the time to read it, even if you are distracted by something else), Nicolas Carr confirms the nagging suspicion I feel that my concentration has been shortened by the vast volume of information available on the World Wide Web. My mind darts away from whatever I'm doing, because somehow, no matter where I am, I am also thinking about something else.
But what can I do? I am Generation Web. I use the Internet to study, work and play.
I can try to find my groove, sink in, indulge in the fully concentrating on one single idea. Read a whole book. Wash the dishes without listening to a podcast at the same time. Try to understand my notes without looking up every single concept on Wikipedia.
Most important of all, I can realize when procrastination is inevitable, when the sun is shinning too brightly and I should be outside procrastinating by letting my mind and my legs run free.
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| Cité Internationale and the mountains of Vercors as seen from the Bastille. |
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| Grenoble and the Belledonne mountains as seen from the Bastille |
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| Selfie on top of the Bastille. |
But that's just my two cents.
- The Wild Bazilchuk
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