Distractions

Jul 3, 2012 by Lona

I have mentioned that I’m a gamer. So let’s get this straight right off the bat: you should never be self-employed if you’re a gamer. It does not work well. Because no matter where you are, whether you work at home or have a separate office, you’re on your own. No one monitors your work activity, or checks to see that you’re staying on task. You’re not responsible to anyone but your clients, and they’re miles away most times.

Actually, I don’t have issues getting client work done. Client work always comes first. But then I finish the client work and send it off, and I need to wait to hear back. There are now other things I should be moving on to. Other things that need to get done. For example, updating my website more than once or twice a week. That would likely be a very good idea.

So I open my browser. And there it is. The basic problem. Client work takes almost no internet, and when it does, I’m looking for something specific, and I’m doing it as fast as I can so I don’t lose that thought and can finish that sentence/paragraph/chapter before I forget what it was I wanted to say. But when I’m done with the client’s latest chapter and I’ve sent it off, I no longer have that hurried feel when I open my browser.

So I check my email and start looking through recent book news and the like as it’s important to keep myself up to date. But look, there’s an email that one of my game subscriptions is going to expire.

That’s not work email. I shouldn’t have even clicked the label to check it. I should have stuck to my business inbox. But the bold text taunted me. And now I know. And it’s going to bother me. So I head over to renew the subscription.

There’s a post on the login page that a special event is going on in-game. It’s a time-limited thing. If I don’t log in and participate in the next two days I’ll miss out. I should have time, I have two days. But now a little voice in the back of my head is pointing out that when I do log in later that night, I’ll be logging in to do something with a group, and I won’t have time to participate. Same with tomorrow night. So really, if I want that cool thing, I kind of do need to log in right now.

Well, I should take a lunch break anyway. So I set an alarm on my browser for an hour. I will only play an hour and then I’ll go back to work. The alarm will make sure that I only play for that one hour.

The sound needs to be on to get my attention and I didn’t remember that my speakers were off because of a research site I was using earlier that had an ad on it with sound.

I wish I was making this up. I really do. But it’s honestly the reason this post is a day late.

I got my mount, though.