What distracts you?

Vainglory

Infuriated as I am by my inability to stop posting on numerous websites and actually do my essay(s), I thought I'd compound that frustration and ironically make a thread asking everyone else what usually gets in the way of them doing essays/coursework in general (rather than do my essay.)

At the moment I'm sparodically clicking "refresh" on about six different message boards, going out for intermittent cigarettes, cursing the History department for having three essays due on the same day and occasionally checking my essay window (and doing a word count just in case some gremlin has got into my computer and completed my essay for me while I've been discussing some worldly issue elsewhere.) Come to think of it, I think I press "word count" after every sentence. (I'm at 1369, incidentally.)

It's pretty existential. If you reply to this thread while meant to be doing an essay, you'll be avoiding working on your essay by posting on a thread about what usually makes you avoid your essay. Deep.

Procrastination is thy enemy.

abelard

Food really really distracts me.

Pathetic really

Chakar

In the same boat here.

What distracts me is the Wikipedia site as I access to it to find out the little things, like Congress can pass a law without Bush's signature if a two thirds majority vote for the law.Stuff like that.

Also boards.ie, ucdsu newswire and my ucdconnect email distract me.But its that Wikipedia site.Ah well as least I'm learning.

I'm at 518 words having started it last night.Gonna work at it till 2am.And no I'm not using Wikipedia for my essay.:)

I'm wondering if I disable the internet on my laptop, would I actually stop procrastinating?

Scraggs

MSN is actually evil. Thank God I can't get IRC here or I'd be royally screwed.
I seem to be ok on boards, I only need to check that every 15 mins nowadays. Thankfully I no longer get distracted by cigarettes... that was very time consuming back in the day.




EDIT: I'd like to point out that I scored 96% in that internet addiction test....

humbert

gmail chat, it's evil, I've litterally wasted days talking on it, worker friends with internet access, I waste my life while they get payed to chat:(

Stepherunie

The Radio - i'm a terror for zoning out listening to tom dunne and o2.ie which seems to be infuriatingly slow - or that could be my broadband connection at home which is absolute pants. Boards I'm rather good on that score actually - well i check it about every half hour.....

Jonny Arson

Since i bought my laptop i'm actually doing more college work in the library than surfing the interweb, it should be the opposite way round actually

once i get home i rarely do study or coursework, it's spamming on a couple messageboards or constructive spamming on boards.ie, browsing news, google earth, youtube and wikipedia all great to kill time, music is the big disraction though!

i'm not a person for IRCs or MSN, i actually hate MSN, use of phone instead ffs

i've never been a big radio person, phantom fm may change that

rarely watch tv either, i only watch south park and sky sports news pretty much

nah don't have much distractions apart from alcohol and women

Waltons

Distractions? When the work is upon me: everything.
Awful habit for improving on my drumming skills when I should be studying/doing assignments. Mostly studying, actually. I don't watch TV until it's time to study

tintinr35

anything that is of slight interest, my room is spick and span and my notes are colour coded!! and ive an essay due tomorrow that i havent started.......look somthing shiny!!

fish-head

Let's see... Boards is fairly distracting, YouTube eats my life and feeds my soul, strategically placed guitars get me for hours, trawling eBay looking at classic cars and guitars, Wikipedia, books completely unrelated to the topic of study, snacks, cups of tea, glasses of water.. bloody well anything that isn't writing essays really.

elmyra

Distractions: Boards, bebo, my phone and stupid free 085 text (105 messages yesterday between 2 people- must get life), yore Ma, reading things that aren't in any way related to college, bumping into housemates from last year and talking for a half hour, the laughter of current housemates having fun (grrr- what is with meds having all this time to have fun? shouldn't they be learning...), random trips to tesco to buy a new biro or something else as frivolous.

Number of essays due tomorrow: 2

Number of essays complete: 0

Number of essays due next week: 3

Number of essays complete: 1

As it happens, no idea why it is complete, and it's probably crazy, because I wrote while on strong painkillers during the illness of the past week or so.

Number of times Elmo is screwed: Infinite.

fish-head

Bebo! How could I forget that cursed thing... Cursed, beautiful, horrible, wonderful thing..

rainbow kirby

EVERYTHING. Seriously, I'm finding it so hard to concentrate at the moment.

Sangre

Somehow I can't quite take the claims that 'arts is like seriously hard' seriously anymore.

Garret

used be the official manics board and the ****** board

but then they closed down

it was as if the internet was trying to tell me something

but i stuck to my guns and found other sites (one of which has also closd down:D)

that and MSN, bebo, wikipedia, Football365, Paddypower, music, Pitchfork Media, cluas.com

if i got rid of my bookmark toolbar id get sooo much more work done

tintinr35

Sangre wrote:

Someone I can't quite take the claims that 'arts is like seriously hard' seriously anymore.

poorly constructed sentences distract me.:)

besty

Guys who say they are not distracted by the female population in the library tell lies.

dajaffa

Not in any particular order:

- Coaching a ladies hockey team + the constant texts, calls etc to sort out teams, matches, refs, gear + whatnot

- Actually playing hockey for my own team + all the matches, traing yada yada yada

- Bits + pieces for Bfm

- All the SU class reppage stuff + programme boarding it up

- All the other class reppage stuff involving the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists among other stuff

- The stupid amount of non-class reppage related stuff I do in the SU: lurk, poster, proof-read, carry stuff + a load of other sh1t..

- Learn to drive

- Fix the family compter after the lil bro get's it to within an inch of it's life from viruses (if I didn't have a laptop I'd prob be in prison 4 murder)

- Rub people randomly

- Plot to take over Physiosoc

So what this college lark everyone talks about?

EDIT: Boards + Newswire, nuff said bout that.

EDIT 2: Btw it's all a big web of stuff that ensures that I always have a good excuse as to why I'm not studying

Sangre

besty wrote:

Guys who say they are not distracted by the female population in the library tell lies.

Why do you think I always sat in the law section?

elmyra

Sangre wrote:

Why do you think I always sat in the law section?

Cos big law books hide little Sangre parts? :rolleyes:

Sangre

Yes, very good.

pretty*monster

-Long as cigarette breaks at the wall

-People whining "Ka-ate, come to the bar"

-Making cups and cups of tea

-Message boards

-Panicking about my credit card bill

-Dreaming up implausible schemes to improve my financial situation (today I
considered producing a porno movie, selling drugs, and selling my eggs)


/has 25 words of her essat written. Ah sure, it's not due until tomorrow.

-Being distracted by library books way outside me course (in first year I read The Radical Feminist Reader instead of studying for my exams, last May I could be found leafing through dry tomes on the sociology and psychology of sadomasochism (intellectual curiosity only I assure you), and read up on the philosophy of education while actually travelling to my Aristotelian logic exam, this year I'm mostly pursuing Harold Bloom and historical conceptions of Eve :rolleyes: )

-More cigarette breaks

-Philsoc

-Thinking about sex

-Another cigarette break

singingstranger

- Boards.ie
- Bebo
- ucdsu.net
- the occasional cluas.com (when I have to do a bit of writing)
- my friends' blogs, housed on four different sites
- BBC Celebdaq
- Wikipedia

My life is over.

panda100

tintinr35 wrote:

anything that is of slight interest, my room is spick and span and my notes are colour coded!! and ive an essay due tomorrow that i havent started.......look somthing shiny!!

Ditto!I have lovely colourful notes,all in shiny new folders and colour coded!I spend all say writing out my notes really prettily and not learning them at all! The main offender for me is the highlighter.I spend days just highlighting pages thinking Im actually 'studying' but im not im just highlighting pages!

Gmail chat,boards,indymedia and ucdsu.net are all pretty addictive

Blowfish

- various message boards
- various chat methods
- wikipedia
- youtube
- the internet in general
- being a beta tester for a MMO

fatal

goodlookin girls...........for that reason im kind of happy that im not based in the quinn school cos thats where so many of them seem to be

DirkVoodoo

-Posting on boards (its a good thing i only do it like 0.1 times a day, but i read a lot of posts)

-Private messaging certain people on boards...you know who u are!

-Many, many tea breaks.

-Reading Teamtalk.com.

-Playing football.

-Getting my latest episode of prison break.

-Wandering around the eng block.

*sigh*, gotta stop this and get some work done! Abstract due for next friday

tintinr35

DirkVoodoo wrote:

*sigh*, gotta stop this and get some work done! Abstract due for next friday

poor u next friday:rolleyes:

gubbie

Chakar wrote:

In the same boat here.

What distracts me is the Wikipedia site as I access to it to find out the little things, like Congress can pass a law without Bush's signature if a two thirds majority vote for the law.Stuff like that.

Also boards.ie, ucdsu newswire and my ucdconnect email distract me.But its that Wikipedia site.Ah well as least I'm learning.

I'm at 518 words having started it last night.Gonna work at it till 2am.And no I'm not using Wikipedia for my essay.:)

I'm wondering if I disable the internet on my laptop, would I actually stop procrastinating?

Wikipedias my friend

Stepharunie wrote:

or that could be my broadband connection at home

Have you got any friends or family in UCC cos if so it might be very worth while to go get it registered-free internet and printing as UCC get free printing I just got my brother to do mine

Stepherunie

gubbie wrote:

Wikipedias my friend

Have you got any friends or family in UCC cos if so it might be very worth while to go get it registered-free internet and printing as UCC get free printing I just got my brother to do mine

No point - have all my lectures printed off and i don't spend time in cork (stoopid living at home)

Currently being very distracted by friends asking about certain events and by pizza and the silly bean sitting next to me (treasa is such a bad influence).

fish-head

Tea breaks actually kill people.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Fluff.......actually everything........ME!! I distract myself, it's an inbuilt only child mechanism.

Brain: Process started......concentration levels dropping....run process 'distract', locate the nearest source of distraction.......rubber and compass found.....proceed to sculpt rubber into work of art using compass. Repeat.

JustCoz

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote:

Brain: Process started......concentration levels dropping....run process 'distract', locate the nearest source of distraction.......rubber and compass found.....proceed to sculpt rubber into work of art using compass. Repeat.

I hear ya Roger! Literally everything distracts me. The worst though is music. I can't study and listen to music at the same time but I always do it anyway.

fish-head

It's ten to ten, I have a 2000 word Music essay to do, and here I am.

tintinr35

fish-head wrote:

It's ten to ten, I have a 2000 word Music essay to do, and here I am.

well then go do it.....spa!!;)