As my follow-up to a previous post - ‘Nintendo Are Ruining my Life’ I had intended to reveal my awesome cure for all things Distractive, (which I will do anyway), but have found that this cure has been snatched away from me! Twice!
Allow me to explain…
As I have already said, I pretty much get distracted by anything and everything around the house – games, food, coffee, internet, TV… so my cure is kind of obvious – get out of the house! It is the only way I can work. If I’m not surrounded by stuff that can distract me then I can’t be distracted by it. This doesn’t necessarily stop my brain from telling me that I’m tired and hungry the second I begin work, but I can kill multiple birds with one stone – do my work in a coffee shop! These places are surely designed for writers/easily distracted workers. There’s no TV, I write on paper, so that means no internet, and there’s as much food and coffee as you can wave your unwisely overused credit card at! Coffee shops have been the answer to all of my problems for years. But that all came to a horrible end just a few weeks ago.
The first major blow was a wolf in sheeps clothing (not literally, that would be weird). It was something that I really needed. Something that I could use to keep up to date with my emails, my blog and twitter. Something so that I always had music to hand incase some obnoxious loudmouth decides to sit next to me and put me off. Something so that, when I get a phone call, I can actually answer my phone and not accidentally hang up in my pocket! Yes. I waved my unwisely overused credit card again and this time an iPhone 4 appeared! The answer to all my prayers. And the inihilator of all my cures! What have I done?!
Now, wherever I go, I have TV, internet, games and strangely addictive twitter conversations about sparkly pants!
The second blow came when I went to the Dr. to confess that I have been having heart palpatations for the past 14 years and they are now getting bigger and more frequent. The Dr gave me some very good news, but some very bad news too…
Good news: I am not dying.
Bad news: I HAVE TO QUIT CAFFEINE!!!
Yes, you read that right (unless you read it as ‘I have to rub old men’s genitals in my face four times a day’, then you read it completely wrong), I HAVE TO QUIT CAFFEINE! INCLUDING CHOCOLATE!
How has it come to this? One month ago I was splashing around in my 100% distraction free coffe shop utopia, now I’m wading through a chocolate free, caffeine free, tv, game and internet laden cess pool of sleepy distraction-poo!
Healthy living and an iPhone 4. Who would have thought they could be so damning?
A few other posts you might find interesting:
Ha, the sparkly pants!
I feel your no-caffeine pain, though. I suffer with migrains and was told years back to cut out the migrain. For years I have been drinking decaf tea and caffeine free diet coke. Haven’t given up the chocolate though, that’s just not going to happen.
The only other place I can think of that might be good to write would be a library, but there’s no food and drink there. But… you’d probably have to turn your phone off to be quiet? Solves that problem. I’m afraid I can’t think of a caffeine substitute though. Sellotape? Lol.
Libraries make me sleepy though! Plus our local one is kind of grim. (If I ever feel like writing a depressing story about smelly old people that’ll be my first port of call though!)
So far I’ve been surviving on peppermint tea and Horlicks. I was actually expecting a big energy boost when all those artificial stimulants left my system, but so far not much has changed. I assume your migraines got better? (I also assume you made a minor typo and they didn’t tell you to cut out your migraine? DIY lobotomy – not recommended!)
Thanks for the comment.
See you on Twitter!
Whoops. Sorry for the typo. They haven’t gone completely, I still suffer from them sometimes, but rarely – touch wood.
Oooh, well if you’re replacing the coffee, I guess coffee shops will still work, so not too bad! Still no ideas on staying awake though, sorry! Lol.
im afraid to say it but you could always try the completely pretentious juice bars? in the middle of the day they’ll be quite quiet and also they’re healthy without the distraction of massive chocolate muffins constantly tempting you.
sorry its a poor substitute but desperate times and all…
It’s not a bad idea, but there aren’t any here! A Fro-Yo bar did open nearby, but it’s so small I would feel uncomfortable hanging around for half a day on one purchase. Maybe I should think about opening my own Milkshake Bar?
no dont open one that’ll distract you more :s dang nabit looks like fate has taken writing from you :/