step away from the computer

it bothers me that sometimes i sit in front of my computer, and i don’t have anything to do. yet i can’t unglue myself from the computer. i check my gmail account and my unc email. i check bloglines and boingboing and blogdex. i check my blog for new comments. i go to news.google.com. i check my referrer page, i check my extreme tracking stats. i check my tada list.

maybe something from above will trigger me to post a neatlink or forward someone a link or leave a comment or reply to an email.

but a lot of times i just sit there. and repeat the cycle. check my blog again for comments. reread my most recent post. i liken the experience to channel surfing. and feeling like a deer in headlights. the very psychosis i wanted to avoid by not owning a tv i’ve recreated with my laptop.

i presume the popularity of getting things done and 43things and tadalist suggests i’m not alone. but here’s the thing. i don’t care about getting things done. that’s not my problem. i just want to prevent my computer from turning me into a zombie. here are two things i’ve discovered so far.

lcd screens are too bright, especially at night. so i need to remember to turn down the brightness. i’m not sure what the connection is between the glowing liquid crystals and my ability to think, but turning it down immediately puts me at ease. it’s as if the brightness demands more of my cognitive attention, and leaves me powerless to play an active role in actually using the computer.

different postures are suited to different tasks. there’s something i really like about laying down with my laptop in front of me and a pillow under my chest, propping me up. i do this on couches, on the floor, in bed. it’s cozy, it’s like cuddling up with a book. i like laying down that way to read email or blogs, respond to personal emails, basically doing all of the things i listed at the top. but it tends to be a very bad position for getting things done. or having ideas or solving problems.

i guess because laying down is a passive position, whereas sitting upright, in an ergonomic chair at a desk is a much more active, alert position. if i’m sitting up, i can more easily access things around me, and i can more easily step away from the computer. when i’m laying down, i’m probably going to stay laying down, whether i’ve got something to do or not.

11 Comments

Brian

Seek professional help now for this behavior and get a life.

Patrick

dude… Let a professional give you some IT assistance with this problem.

1. Click on Start
2. Click on Shutdown
3. Overcome the voices in your head and click OK when it asks if you really want to shut down.
4. Get off the bed.
5. Go sit on the toilette for a while if you feel dizzy.
6. Leave your apartment. Don’t go to work to use a computer there.

Good luck!

Jackie

Am I the only one who can relate to this? I do this constantly. I have a blogroll of about 6 sites–email, justin’s site, google news, greek tragedy, dooce, boingboing, and repeat. Usually it’s a method of avoiding something else I should be doing.

ha, thanks all.

Yah, I find myself doing that sometimes too. Then I have to do like Patrick says, although instead of #6 I pick up a book or knitting.

i do this not only at home, but at work as well when i’m bored.

Ryan

I do this all the time! I need help too. I also have problems getting things done. We need to create a support group!

i solved the problem last night by coming up with a semi-arbitrary project to work on. i think i’ve just needed something for my mind to grind away at in the evenings when i’m not going on some hiking or exploring adventure.

Brian

So what’s the subject of the project you’ve decided to work on – I’m dying to know…

ha, if i tell you, you might start working on it for me.

but in short i was playing with an xml format for representing the dialog of a comic. so i wrote a little dtd (my first) and then drew up an erd for a database to store the data, and then built a user-interface mockup for entering the data.

the xml/dtd might be a dead end, but in the least i wanted to experiment with writing some search algorithms over structured data.

Brian

DSD ugh, XML Schema (XSD) is mucho bettero…XML Schema is an XML based alternative to DTD.

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