Hubby and I have been on vacation all week. We were also on vacation two weeks ago. Don’t ask, he chose the weeks.
I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish while we were on vacation.
- Shampoo my carpets.
- Paint the outside of the french doors.
- Clean up my office/scrapbook room.
- Take my grandson and do something fun for a day.
- Get a couple of blog posts ready to go, to help take the stress off me when I’m writing.
- Move the blog to self-hosted.
- Design the new website.
- Clean out the garage.
- Give the house a good douching.
I managed to take my grandson for the day and we went to The Dinosaur Place.
I also started writing the daily blog the night before, so I can tweak it first thing in the morning and get it up earlier.
And that’s it.
Oh, I spent almost every waking minute on the computer, the problem was I found myself drifting. I’d drift to my gooogle reader to see what you all were up to, or I’d drift over to facebook and check my words with friends games.
I first heard about drifting from the other awesome Jodi, over at Kol’s Notes. Jodi wrote a post Things I Learned At #BlogPaws: Time May Change Me, But I Can’t Change Time.
Ah, suddenly I have a name for what I’m doing, I just don’t know how to stop myself. Jodi says there’s a tool you can download to block the social media sites when you need to be working.
That won’t stop me. I’ll just shut it off.
I need motivation.
Where do you find your motivation when you just don’t have any? Have you ever suffered from Drifting? What steps did you take to help keep yourself on task?
I’ve been struggling with this issue myself, and I’ve been considering not going online on weekends, at all. Just unplugging myself. (Yet here I am on Sunday morning, commenting on this post!) The problem is, I love all the blogs I follow – but sometimes it’s so hard to keep up with everything. And of course, there’s facebook, and researching doggie diseases, and all that fun stuff too…
“Drifting” . . . hmmmmm, guess I’m equally guilty (probably even more so) of the same thing. I think I’m glad there’s a name for it . . . does that mean a pill is soon to follow? Maybe a 10 step program? Well! Now that I know there’s an actual name for this “activity” AND admit I suffer from this malady, I suppose I had better work on ridding it from my day. BUT, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll take the “Scarlett” approach and think about it tomorrow. 😀
Drifting sounds like a great way to spend your vacation. I know it’s tough to not feel bad about ignoring that To Do list but sometimes, that’s just what your mind & body needs.
I’m the Queen of drifting 😉 I have to make a list of tasks to accomplish, or else I get nothing (and I mean NOTHING) done! Maybe we can create a support group for drifters and hold each other accountable!!
Well at least you got the most important thing done, spending time with your grandson!
I have a big issue with drifting which is I why I am up to all hours of the night! I get on the computer to tend to the blog, get a post written, respond to comments, but I wind up on FB, twitter and reading other blogs and then wind up writing my posts half asleep! I have been trying really hard to work on this since, but I can’t break the habit!
Maybe this sounds counter-productive but ever since I have given myself permission to do only what I feel like doing – at least, when it comes to my online activities – I think I have been a lot more productive and have drifted a lot less. Instead of procrastinating all the time and feeling guilty for not doing more I now spend most of my online time in ways that I both enjoy and that end up being the most useful to me personally. Maybe I’ll never be the most active blogger in the world, but that just doesn’t matter to me anymore.
Mostly I don’t worry about it. The carpets will still need to be cleaned, doors painted and all that. But your grandson won’t be this age again so you have your priorities straight.
I always have a to do list. But sometimes it takes me a month to get through it.
I wish I had a remedy for it, because drifting is one of the things I do best–I lose track of time on the computer and whatever else I do on my time off, and for now, I’m okay with it! 🙂
I try to assign blocks of time to use my computer so that it doesn’t take up all of my time. I look at blogging and blog reading as a hobby so I don’t feel guilty doing it. (I do feel guilty when I get behind in my reading though…lol.)
I have a drifting problem too, for sure… so I’ll be interested to hear what tips people have!
Me toooooo! I used to be ‘snow white,’ but I have drifted……. actually, really hard to stay focused on work and I just have to shut down the browsers. Wish someone paid us for the fun stuff – DogDaz
I so get it!
Oh no it must be contagious…I have it too 😉 Do you think there is a group for people like us, lol
I do it too, it’s not easy to stay on focus when there are so many distractions! Reminds me of a couple of Famly Guy episodes when James Wood is followling & picking up a trail of Reece’s Pieces [like in ET] & kept saying ooh candy, ooh candy… just silly but that’s what I flash on when I realize I’m having a … brain fart I guess, lol.
You’re certainly not alone. But hearing about your vacation list, I’d wonder if the problem is that you don’t know how to take a vacation. 🙂
On your day off from work you shampoo your carpets. But on your vacation, you vacate.
Your drifting might be a message that you need to take a real break.
BOL! I’m with Pamela. You sound like you had planned the *worst vacation ever*. Vacations are doing things that fulfill your heart and rest your soul. (Note: I just learned this lesson last month. So I *clearly* know what I’m talking about)
When is your next vacation planned? Follow my lead and ask for guest posters to cover all/most of the days! I’ll be taking two weeks off in October and I’d be thrilled f you’d take a guest post. I’d be happy to do the same for you next time you need a break.
You need an anchor Jodi! 🙂