Collateral Distractions: Your Unnecessarily Busy Day

It is the first time during your day when you can make a real pause. You may have thirty minutes to an hour to disconnect. You intend to do something meaningful, something to make this time count.

I have time to take a nap, you think. Maybe, I can draw for a bit, go for a walk and take fresh air, or continue reading this novel. Then, you open your device.

Check for a really important email? Spend fifteen minutes reading spam and useless newsletters. Check Twitter with no reason? Spend five minutes looking at automated bots that liked your tweets. Check Facebook because you have been tagged in a picture? Spend thirty minutes looking at pictures of people smiling on the beach, then skim through two viral articles that had an appealing title. Check LinkedIn in case recruiters missed you and want to offer you your dream job? Spend the rest of your free time looking for “People You May Know.”

Then, you realize, the free time you had when you opened your device is all gone. You did not read, get fresh air, or take a nap. Now, you have something else to do. You might have to meet someone, or just continue working. And this is how your unnecessarily busy day might start. That, is your choice.

February 10, 2016

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