desperate for change

(Musée d’Orsay clock image used under CC license from http://flickr.com/photos/32814074@N00/436194884/)

I still don’t have a TV. Sure, I am missing out on the episodes of Dancing with the Stars, but other than that, I am not missing too much. Plus I got the Internets so I am connected to the outside world.

Fact: Internet is an even bigger time suck than TV.

• While TV shows seem to quietly take your life away, it does so in half-hour and one hour increments. As well, there are regular commercial breaks to remind you that you should get back to doing your laundry. Surfing on the web doesn’t have these built in time segmentations.
• The unstructured nature of web-surfing also leads to what I would call “microslacks.” So while waiting for your code to compile, you might decide to check out your favourite web forums for updates. I bet that at least half of those microslacks unintentionally turn into fuller web-surfing sessions.
• Web-surfing activity sometimes can be misclassified as productive and useful work. Surely you know someone who checks email too frequently. Or for those of you who Hacker News, you are too busy reading about doing startups to actually do your startup. The man himself is trying to get his surfing under control!
• With the advent of youtube, you have even more variety of mindless drivel to watch than TV. Emphasis on mindless drivel.

I have an idea to combat this: The kitchen timer.

• Schedule specific parts of the working day to allow for microslacking. For example, you allow yourself 5 minutes every hour on the hour. If you are going to slack, might as well get efficient. Don’t use your computer clock, because the web-surfing will totally absorb you. A side effect of this is that I actually start watching the clock for when I am allowed to start my microslack.
• At night, I have a tendency to just go on and on and then “whoops I still haven’t washed the dishes yet and it’s 2am!” To combat this, I allow myself 15 minute to half-hour chunks as appropriate. When the clock goes off, I have to stop and do something else. I will allow myself to get back to more surfing if I like, but again I have to reset the clock timer to half-hour again.

Let’s face it – going online is addictive. Yet to be cut off totally is not the answer either. Forcing “commercial breaks” with the kitchen timer should help. Just got one yesterday from the dollar store.

What are you doing to stay on track?

I’ve been doing some thinking lately (a dangerous thing, I know) and some random readings online. In particular, I’ve been reading up on the INTJ personality type. And yes, I come out as an INTJ in 9 out of 10 personality tests.

It has suddenly occurred to me how some people are able to get much more favourable reaction from random strangers than I can. I knew it is probably about the way I come across and/or way I present myself. I think that one of the more negative INTJ traits is that they tend to not enjoy “pointless” smalltalk and don’t give praise so easily. In short, INTJ is all business, all the time.

So the next obvious thing is to google for “INTJ” and “scary.” Lo and behold, I found an interesting post that summaries the various INxx personalities. The descriptions that the writer came up with for the different personalities is based on her observations of the discussions in personality specific forums. I totally laugh out loud at INTJ responses in these forums – because they come across totally rude yet, are totally right on the money.

Personally, I do fluctuate away from the INTJ profile depending on my mood, weather and amount of sleep. For experimental purposes in the past, I have deliberately tried to push as far away from the INTJ as possible and I seem to be able to come across as “more fun.” I have even considered that being friendly (at just the right amount) for the sake of getting a positive reaction is also optimizing the outcome of a situation (which is a totally INTJ calculating thing to do). At which point, I am no longer able to carry that line of thinking. So, I stop before my brain explodes.

I think that it’s just easier to be me-me; even if it means coming across as a scary person 90% of the time. But for those of you that know me personally, I’ll remember to be a bit nicer.