Monday, December 12, 2005

Distraction is the action

9:17 pm

I've just sat down to get a nice chunk of grading completed this evening. So far I have discovered that using Tabbed browsing with firefox, while reading my students blogs, is the most unproductive way to go. One tab is work, the other is blog...yin yang...I've also sorted out the playlist that I generally like to listen to as I grade. You know, get rid of the songs that no longer seem to fit, or just don't strike the mood anymore. I also found the entire "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" mp3 (that is the whole album) on Limeware, and boy, its groooovy. Yup, Procrastination folks. In action. Okay, I am obviously feeling overwhelmed. It's now 9:21. Maybe if I give myself a smaller deadline...like work for 20 minutes and then reflect back on that experience. Hmmm. This could work...

more later...at 9:45 to be precise.

10:42 pm

The phone rang and I ended up having an extremely long chat with my best friend. S0mehow reality is conspiring to help me procrastinate. Yeah yeah, I know. I could have cut the conversation short...but a deeply enthralling conversation trumps grading and procrastination any day

11:55 pm

Well, I impressed even myself! I took a good bite out of the material, and have managed to turn that mountain into a somewhat manageable hill. Its still an uphill battle - oops there goes those violent metaphors again. I think it was Mary Rose O'Reilley who said that grading was the ultimate academic form of violence.

2 comments:

Kim said...

heather: i just found your blog through john's "my zen life." i am very excited to read more of your posts, but as it goes, i have whittled away too much time in front of the computer and it is late (i have small kids as well). i'll be back!

Hotboy said...

Great new photie of the buddha in the woolly hat!! Glad I don't have to mark anything. When I was a student, I'd have preferred being marked by a machine. But this won't help at all. Hotboy