How about if we start by confessing how we waste time? -daydreaming -cleaning house -photocopying during productive brain time -playing on the internet

Reading PhinisheD? Seriously: sitting with hubby while he flips channels.

1) Watching football...although I am really tired today, it's a happy tired! fish heads, fish heads, roly-poly fish heads fish heads, fish heads, eat 'em up, YUM! Sorry to any Miami fans. :) Seriously, I do try to work during the games but if my Bills are playing it's tough to concentrate. 2)Playing mahjongg 3)Reading anything else but diss-related stuff Kids and Band don't count as frittering.

Let's see, most of mine involve staring: --at blank pieces of paper --at one page in a book I'm supposed to be reading --at walls --at the computer screen And hey, daydreaming is a very productive thing sometimes! I compose my papers and stories almost entirely in my head, so I do a lot of "daydreaming," but it's not a waste of time. I guess it all depends on what you're daydreaming about! (Does daydreaming about Colin Firth count as productive? What do you think, droolers?)

Carol - you're a Bills fan?! I'm from Buffalo, as is my husband. We *love* the Bills! Last night I watched a little bit of the game too (fell asleep at 10:00). Are you from Buffalo? I fritter my time away by reading and responding to some wonderful e-mail lists I'm, reading Phinished, and reading articles on the Salon site. I also talk on the phone to friends and family. -Lynn

When I get the urge to fritter I typically, -go to the office... that fritters 1 1/2 hours of getting ready, driving, and setting up. When I do get there I am very productive. -surf the Net... yesterday I went looking for school rings! -watch the brainsucker... I can watch the channels go by for hours at a time! -listen to music... I love to just sit in the dark and listen to music. This activity has been curtailed alot since Adam doesn't enjoy it, but when he's not around I crank it up. -listen to a book on tape... I just bought "Overcoming Procrastination". chances are I'll be procrastinating heavily with this tape in the coming days. You know, maybe it's that it's a thesis, but I feel very motivated to work: I just can't spend time on my thesis with this other class looming over me. If I do work on my thesis, I get sucked in and suddenly a whole day has gone by. I am procrastinating mainly from this damned class and its innane homework. I wish I could use my thesis as relief from the class, but I'm at that stage where I have to put in decent blocks of time to get anything done. -k-

Yes, Lynn, I'm from Buffalo (although I was born in the Poconos, I've lived here since I was 6 months old). And also a big Bills fan, since forever. Harry Jacobs used to come speak at my dad's softball league banquets. His wife and I had braces at the same time! My son has gone to Jim Kelly's football camp for three years now. I watched the whole game so I'm a little punchy - oops, and late for class!!!!

I know exactly what you mean, Kharyssa! I'm not working on my thesis yet, thank God, but I have a research methods class that takes up tons of my time, and once I get started working on my assignments for it, I completely ignore everything else, like grading my students' papers, making lesson plans (they love it when I come to class totally unprepared,) and other such stuff. BTW, what are you majoring in? I'm English literature, studying Byron and Gothic lit right now.

Some ways to stop frittering: 1) Put on a favorite CD (preferably one that doesn't require you to listen closely to it) and work until the last song 2) Work in smaller chunks of time - use a kitchen timer to start small (~15 minutes) 3) Make a daily pact with a friend 4) Get ready at night for the tasks you want to accomplish the next day. Have materials together, data in the right format, etc. If the scut work is done ahead of time you can jump right in 5) Give yourself rewards for finishing tasks - chocolate works well here!

Well, Carol, I try to do that stuff, but somehow I still don't seem to get things done. For example, I'll tell myself that I'm going to get this batch of papers graded no later than Wednesday (or whatever the next day happens to be,) and I always end up getting sidetracked by decorating for Halloween or making my brother's costume or shopping or something--anything other than what I'm supposed to be doing! Perhaps I'm just a slacker, or I just have too much to do and I can't feasibly imagine getting it ll done.

Amy YOu need to just tell yourself (and then stick to it) that you can't do anything else until you have done 5 minutes on the thesis/class what ever, limit yourself to the 5 minutes at first. Soon you'll have it worked out to a happy medium. At least that worked for me - of course mine was the thesis and it had to be done at the cost of other things. I'm still realing from the extra time now that the rough draft is in advisor's hands...I'm afriad I'll get used to the time and never want to work on the thesis again! That said I was up way to late last night with a great Dick Francis book, love his work and found an old one I hadn't read yet at a yard sale last weekend, yeah! But more exciting - he's signing books close by this Sat. I'm hoping to go and in case I can't make it I have my books reserved (more than one DF reader in the family). Ed has class so I have to take the kids with me and its only for 1.5 hours and is about an hour away. Hum I could also go to the really cool knitting store in that town, hu how to occpuy the kids while I drool over books and wool? Oh the fall nesting urges are strong, I want to knit and read:) Tea anyone? Chrissie

Hey Amy! I'm in archaeology... not too different from literature -- I sometimes feel like I'm writing fiction! I realized last night (as I was trying to sleep around 2am - yes the insomnia is back) that I have a huge unresolved fear which is causing my feelings of resentment towards this class. I am terrified that this class, my last required class in a topic that is outside of my field, will eat up all of my time. This would then results in days and weeks gone by that I haven't found time to work on my thesis; and here is where my fear lies: if I am forced to take a 'break' from the thesis I may (read this as 'pr bably will') lose the motivation I feel right now and never get back to it until the end of the semester -- at which point I'll have 3 weeks to finish it if I want to graduate in May! Arg! And those three weeks will be a really really bad time for me to be cramming on this thing... I'll be serving papers to my soon to be ex-husband on the 16th, getting him out of the house, selling the house, packing, and moving into an apartment with a friend going through the same damned thing. So I am stressed out on m ny different levels as well. Thank the stars I am not teaching this year... phew! I don't envy you for that! Chrissie, Yes Fall Nesting is upon us isn't it? We had our first few cold days here (and snow) in Denver and I couldn't resist pushing my two loveseats together and making a great big reading nest in front of the fireplace last weekend! My best wedding gift was one of those tea makers with its own carafe... now I can nest and never have to leave for more tea! I wish the 5 minute thing would work for me, but I am working on stats right now... which require oodles of brain power, logical thinking, and blocks of time to get all the steps straight. And I used up all my little tasks already! Oh well.... on top of all this I need to pull an A in this class to maintain my GPA -- and so far that ain't a-happening (I failed my first paper). So I feel the need to work doubly-hard on the class. -k-

Yes, teaching is the hardest part of the whole thing--my students think I can grade 45 two to four page essays in one day, they're always complaining about their assignments, and they never listen and never follow instructions. If I weren't teaching, I'd be in high cotton right now, except that my car would get repossessed!

K I was curious about the home situation but I didn't want to ask (you might have rehashed it in August, when I took leave of the group). Hope you're ok. No need to get into it of you don't want - just a short note to let you know that I was thinking of you.

I've managed to figure out a way to control the cleaning house urge. I give myself just one room to clean, then I clean it, and then I'm not allowed to do anymore cleaning. I guess the other thing I do to use my productive time well is to use Phinished and email as a reward. Sometimes I use Phinished to get out of bed! ("I can sleep for 10 more minutes OR I can read the board). Otherwise, I try to limit myself to email after something has been accomplished.

K sorry to hear the marriage is going down, but hope that you are comfortable with it, and that you can find the strength to keep working. Ok so 5 minutes won't work right now - how about doing it the other way round? Instead of 5 minutes on the thesis how about 5 minutes on the class work, or the house cleaning and then doing the thesis for an hour and then another 5 minutes on the class/house/paly...not sure that made sense. I am still waiting to hear feedback from my advisor - have to give her another week before I begin to beg for it back and I am so afraid I won't want to do any thesis work once it comes back - the longer she has it the more I am feeling I'm done and don't want to have to begin again! So I understand how you feel about you thesis and the class! Good Luck in both - what a stress to have to get the A for the GPA and to have failed the first paper, nothing like feeling like you are running uphill all semester! GOOD LUCK! Chrissie

Kharyssa, Too bad we can't bottle days like my Monday and your GRE-acing day. Then we could take them out when we get bad news (like failing papers and marriage troubles). Hope better days are coming. Carol

Thanks Amy, Anita, Chrissie, and Carol! I am actually OK with it all. At this point it is the practical thing to do. I've been seeing a counselor for some time now, and she and I have come to the conclusion to end what has been a borderline abusive marriage. I cried it all out way back when in July and August, so I am cool and collected about it now. I'm sure I will be upset when the day comes... but for now I am just trying to hang in there as best I can. Everyday is horrible, and being home together is sheer torture. Hence the reason I've bee staying/working at school more than usual and necessary. I don't think its effecting my concentration so much as it is effecting my schedule. I guess I've just been through enough crapola in my life to recognize and deal with bad situations in a way that results in minimal damage to my psyche. Again, thanks for thinking of me! -k-

K You sound good but do let us know if we can do anything to help! When are you moving out - sounded like it was soon. Chrissie

Hi, Kharyssa-- Ditto what Chrissie said: Let us know if we can help. Best of luck, Barb

I tried the Putting On the CD Trick and it worked!! Excellent.

Well, moving out will be relatively soon in the grand scheme of time... the end of December. So that's what, 2 1/2 months? Yeah pretty soon. I plan to start moving the bigger stuff into storage as soon as he is out of the house -- and there it will stay until I leave in May for Boston or Syracuse or etc. I'm hoping to only have to actually move my bed, clothes, 1/2 the books, and my desk into the new place. The good news is that I found a temp job with a museum over the Christmas break and will make enoug money to pay for movers and storage... YAY! As for the CD thing... I can't do it. I tried. Either I tune the music out completely and don't realize when its over; or I get distracted and jump up tp dance around and sing at the top of my lungs (I used to be in musical theatre) -- or air conduct the steroe. Guess I need to find a genre of music that doesn't do this to me! : ) -k-

Yikes is Dec really only 2 1/2 months away, sigh I'm not ready for the holidays yet...Oh well I love fall and plan to enjoy it while I can! When does he go - sounds like you are both moving out is that right? I love the image of you conducting the CD by the way! I used to study to the Chipmunks, yes the Chipmunks in college as it wouldn't destract me so much. Yeah weird I know but then I'm weird:) Chrissie

I love the Chipmunks too! I have an old 45 with the "We sure like girls, all kinds of girls, from Annie to Veronica" song on it - Margaret likes it because her middle name is Veronica. My dad picked out my first car - an Opel with no radio - so I bought a cassette player for it, and drove back and forth to college singing along with the Andrews Sisters. At least the tape kept me awake! The kids won't let me play it, though. Kharyssa - working beyond the end of the CD is not necessarily a bad thing! I put mine on continuous loop. If I am really getting into my work, I don't notice when the disc starts over.

Since we are all Chipmunks fans here, I am looking for a rare compilation of the Chipmunks doing Sex Pistol, Black Sabbath, and Motorhead standards? I heard it once before at a frat party in college so I know it exists. But then again, the air in the frat smelled kind of funny.

Thanks to Tom's encouragement I have found a new way to fritter away my time...trying to get my new disscam to shoot at proper intervals and ftp to the server correctly. (Thanks Tom, just kidding). But don't we all need to fritter occassionally just to keep our sanity? Samantha

Samantha, if frittering induces sanity, I must be the sanest person on the board. And Edward, good to see you here! I can't imagine Alvin, Simon, and Theodore doing Sid, Ozzie, and Lemmy, but it sure sounds intriguing.     -Tom

Hey, Edward! Glad to see ya, dude. Check out Amazon.com, surf to their music section, search on "chipmunks" and there's over 10 hits. Maybe one of those albums has the music you want. Rochelle

Glad to see you made Edward! -kharyssa-

Edward I think I have that album, or had it - Seems like Alvin had a spiked collar on in the cover art, hum will have to dig them out and look now. Chrissie

I checked out Amazon, and the song I have on a 78 is "Alvin's Harmonica"- on their "Greatest Hits" CD. I put it on my wish list! Chrissie, my two older kids had chicken pox; Margaret got it first, and had a bad case. She generously "shared" it with Arjay, who got it on Father's Day but not as bad. I made sure Jean got the vaccine, which wasn't available when the older two were small. Margaret was so uncomfortable that I didn't want a repeat with Jeannie, who is much less "mellow" than Margaret is. Hope your kids don't get it! If they do, Caladryl "sort of" works, for a while.

I know this has nothing to do with wasting time, but I don't have the energy nor to go searching for the right thread. It just takes to long to load up. Found out this morning that a dear friend, someone who I thought of as a second mother, has just passed away. Feeling blue and heavy.

Anita, I am sorry to hear you lost someone so dear to you. You are in my thoughts and prayers. Carol

Anita, So sorry. I lost my father and my brother(whom I absolutely adored). Never have truly accepted his death. I hope you can cry about this and take time to be reflective so in the future you can remember her life with joy. I send my deepest sympathies. Ellen

These things can't help but make one think of one's own mother, I think, in addition to feeling the pain for the friend. Take care, Anita.

Anita, I'm sorry for your loss. Heartfelt condolences to you.    -Tom

Anita-- Sorry to hear that particular bit of news. I lost a second mother, too, awhile back. I'm sending you good thoughts. Barb

Anita I too send love and warm thoughts to you on your loss. Sorry to hear it! Chrissie