Distracted
I find myself incredibly distracted while I’m trying to read/listen/write for my class. My mind will wander, then I’ll get bored and want to check something, anything other than what I’m currently looking at. I’ll wander over to Yahoo sports, or look up something on Google, or check my email for the 100th time. At work I’m very distracted too. I’ll check email constantly, hit up my list of blogs that I follow anytime I need a break, check my twitter feed, or see how the stock market’s doing (a very dangerous thing indeed). I even found that I’m listening to music more and more. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I used to almost never listen to music while working/studying.
In college I could sit in front of my books for hours at a time. I could do coding sessions for hours with my only breaks to chug some Dew. I used to love studying in silence. (But not in those desks w/ the high walls. I need my open space.) But now I’ve become so distracted, or better put, I want to be distracted. I want to go check other things. My attention span has dwindled and all these things in my life has enabled it. It’s not that I suddenly developed A.D.D or A.D.H.D or A.A.D.D or whatever other excuse people use. The fact is, I was trained to concentrate for periods at a time. I had the will power to force myself to be undivided in what I was doing. Now, I’ve entangled myself in so many things and found these things that can pull my brain in a million more interesting places. Even now as I write this I’m watching my email, checking my Facebook wall, and waiting to see what comment someone has to drop on twitter.
I didn’t get on this list because I was smart or anything. I knew how to work hard, concentrate, and do the right things at the right times. My skills in these areas have deteriorated since I’ve left the academic arena and that’s made all the more evident as I step back into it. It’s time to learn how to focus again.