How did people procrastinate before the internet? Seriously, WHAT did they do? And I think the way I use the term procrastination has shrunk. It used to mean putting off a term paper for days or weeks until the deadline. Now it means minutes or hours.

Ok, lecture ended at 3, I have roughly 1 – 1 1/2 hours before I meet Ben for dinner, then go to my 5:30 lecture. That’s plenty of time to work on my Mumps virus term paper.

Plan = check emails, start typing report.
hmmm …
now plan = check emails, chat with Ben, start typing report
hmmm …
now plan = check emails, chat with Ben, click links on emails, start typing report
hmmm …
now plan = check emails, chat with Ben, click links on emails, check favorite rss feeds, start typing report
hmmm …
now plan = check emails, chat with Ben, click links on emails, check favorite rss feeds, check all feeds, start typing report
hmmm …
now plan = check emails, chat with Ben, click links on emails, check favorite rss feeds, check all feeds, find cool flash game, read snarky posts, ogle textiles, post on blog

And suddenly 30 minutes are gone.