Train Of Thought


I had a "desk day" yesterday and it led to some interesting journaling last night. I'm sharing it with you now in its original, unfiltered form.
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So I'm at my desk, trying to work, and my concentration just isn't there. Too much in my head, see, and too little time available to cope with it all. I'm trying to wrap up my summer prep, trying to find a new laptop, trying to figure out just how I'll finance the damn thing -- I'm tired because I was out too late last night, but I couldn't, wouldn't leave when the company was so good, and even if I'm paying for it now I'm pretty sure it was worth it. Then I'm distracted again, considering the week ahead and wondering if I can find an extra-delicious sugar cookie recipe to make use of my new astronaut cookie cutter. Maybe I'll even share them.

But the list is long and I'm not making much progress. I add to the list of things to do while simultaneous adding to the distractions.

Why is it we do that? Why are we so good at taking on more than we should, at adding other things at random till our time disappears? I'm know I'm lucky because my time is almost entirely my own, but that may just make me more reckless with it, more apt to lose track of it, more likely to stay where I am for ten minutes more or one more drink or just until so-and-so arrives. No one else is depending on my schedule so that extra stop for coffee doesn't really count, right?

But that's not the real issue, is it? Talking to people, sticking around longer, having one more cup of coffee to finish out the conversation -- that's the good stuff. It's the little time eaters, the five more minutes of a TV show I've already seen, the incredibly dumb computer games, the stupid distractions I allow because I don't really want to finish whatever it is I'm working on (who wants to fold laundry when there are fun pictures on Pinterest?). I fill in the gaps with nothing but noise and then wonder why things don't get done.

These are the things that that cause the ridiculous time vortex and paragraphs of run-on sentences.

Maybe the answer is simple. A little less noise could leave space for a little more coffee and conversation.

It's a thought, anyway.

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