Following the Rabbit Trails

How much time do I waste in my day following rabbit trails?

I see some news article, read it, and it triggers a thought about something else, so I it, and then I see a link in that blog to another article, and I read it, and then I decide I’m curious about the author, so I read that, and by the end of it all, I’m reading about a dead dog that woke up right before it was supposed to be buried.

Or I’m on facebook, and I notice an old friend, or someone who hasn’t posted in some time, and then I notice a friend who’s not my facebook friend, so I friend them, and as I’m looking through their profile, I find out the name of their favorite book, and I google that, or I find out they’ve converted to some weird religion, and I google that, and by the end of it all, I’m reading some very interesting, albeit, useless information.

How do I get tricked into thinking, “I really need to read this” or “I really need to learn about this?” How do we get lured in?

Perhaps I’m a knowledge addict? Perhaps we’re knowledge addicts? Just wanting to know more and more and more, but most of the time, at the end of these rabbit trails, I realize my time would have been better spent doing something else. Something purposeful. Something (at least) somewhat worthwhile.

So today, I’m going to try and not follow the rabbit trails. We’ll see how it goes…