Procrastination Central

My desk has become a mine-field of distractions. I’m supposed to be reading my Chicago Manual of Style, but somehow I end up reading everything but. If you’ve ever been told to read a manual, you know how easy it can be to let your mind wonder to other things. If this editing class has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t want to edit. I’ll write, I’ll proof, I’ll revise, but I don’t like making style sheets, I don’t like type-coding, and I especially don’t like reading manuals. Manuals are meant to be referenced, not read. Perhaps I’m a bit too ADD to let myself become immersed in the rules regarding numbers, or capitalization. I like knowing the rules, but reading about them falls tragically short of entertainment.

To my left is a stack of library books (three of them cookbooks WITH PICTURES OF THE FOOD!), a copy of “Second Sight” (from my YA class last year), and a book given to me this weekend at a reading. The new book taunts me. I pick it up and read a page, and reluctantly put it back down. I’m an adult. I’m well-versed in doing things I don’t want to do. But I can’t make myself read that manual.

To my right is my folder full of unrevised essays for my Creative Nonfiction class. They sit there, marked and graded, waiting to be fixed. If I start now, I’ll be a ghost in my house for the next four hours… and the manual will remain unread.

There’s a slide-out keyboard panel under the desktop that I use for storage. Four magazines and a Madlibs book seem like fairly safe choices for momentary procrastination. I open one of the magazines and read about two pages. My eye wonders back to my new book, and I look around for a moment wondering where I set my Chicago manual. Oh, there it is a full arms-length away in all its orange glory. The only way this thing is getting read is if I take it to my bed where there’s nothing else to do.

OR… I could clean my desk. That totally sounds like a great idea that will only take a half hour and then I can read the horrendous book in peace. Except one thing… then I open my computer and start typing.