A Post a Day in May #20: Distractions

I have pledged to write a new post for this blog every day in May. 

No one can concentrate and be productive forever. Even the most diligent among us has to give in to the occasional daydream, give themselves up to the frivolity of Facebook, or give way to some honest-to-goodness deliberate time-wasting. 

I am finding my work-from-home significantly more intense than I ever imagined it would be. My days are longer at my desk, and so much of my time is taken up with tech-mediated communication that, at the end of the day, I find my mind at once filled with all it has handled yet empty of capacity to discern what any of it really means -- at least at this stage of the day. 

It is then that I gravitate towards sweet mental release — a walk, a cup of tea (or something stronger; it depends), making dinner, or zoning out with yet another episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Whatever I choose, it is a pleasing distraction from corporate duty and a necessary respite from intellectual processing.

And yet, I am ever mindful of Churchill’s quote about stones and barking dogs. The trick is to choose which dogs to hear and to find just the right stone to throw. When the dog is right and the stone well thrown, the distraction does its job: tension released, mind cleared, focus resumed. 

What dogs do you hear? And how far do you throw those stones? 

NOTE: No animals are ever harmed in my distractions. 

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