Distractions

I've been thinking over my time management problems, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm not nearly as overextended and overscheduled as I like to assume. Yes, I work full time, blog every night, and try to fit other stuff (husband, writing, etc.) in between. So what? Lots of people do that. The evenings I spend blogging, editing photos, revising my novel and working on Wikipedia are no more crowded than the evenings I used to spend doing accounting homework, blogging, etc. But somehow, I can't seem to fit in things like cleaning, sorting mail and working out, or even a sixth hour of sleep. So what's the problem?

Could it be that blogging and Wikipedia are more fun than cleaning my office could ever be?

Guy Williams as Zorro. The show is coming out on DVD,
but only to members of a Disney video club. We joined.

Tonight, for example, I pulled out a couple Narnia books and entered fake book titles from them into Wikipedia's List of fictional books‎. Then I remembered a series of fake books from Peanuts, which John researched with me. I ended up adding all these to the Wikipedia entry, and cleaned up a few errors by others. Doing all this led me to Wikipedia entries about John Bellairs, Charles Schulz, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and somehow on to Zorro (see above), James Thurber and My World and Welcome to It.

Some of you are too young to remember, but My World and Welcome to It was a 1969 tv series based on Thurber's writing and drawings, starring William Windom. Although it only lasted one season, it's still fondly remembered. So what did Wikipedia have to say about it? Aside from links, the entire entry was as follows:

My World and Welcome to It was a US-made half-hour sitcom based on the comedy and cartoons James Thurber.

That's it? You might as well say that it's "mostly harmless!" So I wrote a few paragraphs, added an "infobox" and so on. While I was at it, I also

• researched and added a paragraph about The South Bank Show to the Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency‎;
• added Thurber's name to a short article about Gag cartoon‎;
• exchanged greetings with a Wikipedian called DoctorWho42‎; and
  
• joined WikiProject Television‎;

I found out, hours later, that the My World and Welcome to It article had been severely cut back due to plagiarism.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Yup, I blew most of an evening messing around with Wikipedia articles I mostly hadn't visited before. Did I also do dishes, sort mail, etc.? No, of course not. But I did formally promise to get the mail caught up before the weekend's over. I also fully intend to get the emissions testing done for my car registration renewal. Heck, I'm only a week overdue.

And that's the heart of all this. What little discipline I have, has pretty much gone by the wayside lately. Guilt makes it even harder to do the stuff I didn't really want to do to begin with. So I mess around all night doing the fun stuff, and wonder how it got to be 4 AM.

Wikipedia isn't the only thing that distracts me, obviously. I can hardly stand to see a sunset or storm clouds without taking a photo:

The two photos above were taken in the back
of a fast food restaurant parking lot.

Another Safeway sunset, shot in a hurry
from a less-than-perfect vantage point.

Pretty post-storm clouds

When a storm comes up around here, everyone runs to the windows; but not everyone brings a camera. Heck, I also take a camera to the window when the weather starts to clear up again.

I don't intend to give up the blogging or the photography, or even the Wikipedia. But I should be able to be a little more disciplined about getting other stuff done as well. Right?

Right?

I can almost see you shaking your head at me.

Technorati Tags: Wikipedia, Time Management, Personal