Well, at least I don't Twitter

by Paula Matter

Not that there's anything wrong with Twitter. I simply don't need another time sink. (Or should that be time suck?)

The older I get, the easier I'm distracted. For example: I typed that sentence, then Googled 'Fibromyalgia + Distraction.' Yep, I was right–I can blame it on my fibromyalgia. If I look hard enough, I can generally blame a lot on this condition.

Anyway, back to getting distracted. In order to get focused, say when I'm writing, I follow a daily routine to prepare my mind for the work ahead.


My usual routine:


Solitaire, Hearts, Free Cell. In that order and only one game allowed. (Anal with a capital A.)


One puzzle here http://www.jigzone.com/puzzle A little flexibility here if there are some really interesting puzzles.

Check e-mail.

Read favorite blogs. Too many to list. I have stopped reading all of the comments. Hell, Nathan Bransford's blog alone would take an hour or more to read. And I don't comment on very many of the ones I read.

Yahoo! Groups/listserves. I read them online and skim quickly.

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ Quick in and out. I'm down to three times a day.

By then I'm on my third cup of coffee and ready to begin work.

As soon as I check e-mail. Oh! Someone responded to my status on Facebook. A quick look. Reply. May as well check what others are doing. Oh, interesting link.

And on and on and on...

Since I know I'm not alone (please!) here's a fun quiz:

http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Personality-Tests/c/Creativity-Quotient-Test.asp

I scored 64. How'd you do?