Poll: Essays and distractions

[lazy_bum]

Recently I have been getting back into the swing of writing essays (doing one now come to mention it ). I had forgotten how easy it is to get distracted. Not by games or books, or even washing up, but by getting completly and utterly sidetracked when looking for quotes or evidence by another article/passage in the reference material that has absolutley nothing to do with what you are currently researching but is absolutley fascinating.

Is this just me or do other Escapists suffer from the same problem?
Amusing stories about such incidents and whatnot would be cool (and keep my spirits up.)
sorry if writing is disjointed/full of spelling errors. 3.40 in morning and have had faaar too much relentless.

 

[lazy_bum]

Yes, it happens to me. Sometime it isn't even the information that pops up. It is just something that I see in my room that is completely awesome.

...

Like m- OOH! SHINY!

Shiny thing syndrome for the win. If only it was a recognised medical condition, which it should be, then 90% of my pronlems in life would be solved.

 

[Guy32]

Yes, it happens to me. Sometime it isn't even the information that pops up. It is just something that I see in my room that is completely awesome.

...

Like m- OOH! SHINY!

Same, watching my fan rotate is more intriguing than 90% of my essay assignments.

EDIT:

Shiny thing syndrome for the win. If only it was a recognised medical condition, which it should be, then 90% of my pronlems in life would be solved.

Quoted the same thing and used the same percentage D: my post now fails to be unique.

 

[j0frenzy]

I was just writing an essay last week about a US federal judge. The topic of my paper wrote a book review for a John Grisham novel that had nothing to do with my paper. Yet, I still sat down for 20 minutes to read his scholarly review.

 

[Loop Stricken]

When I had to write essays (presumably you're talking about schoolwork and not just for some twisted sense of fun) the Internet was still young enough to be 56k pay-per-minute without Wikipedia and the like, and I was massively lazy so I've not had this problem.

I do however spawn fifty TVTropes tabs, so it's almost the same, right?

 

[cambodiancam]

Yeah everything's better then an essay in my opinion. And I'm doing one now too so I've fallen for your trap, you fiend.

 

[sokka14]

when i'm doing a boring essay, suddenly everything else becomes exciting

 

[reaper_2k9]

No it happens to me especially if I hit up Wikipedia for info. I go there to look up a name or a date, 6 hours later I'm clicking on things that are totally irrelevant to what I'm writing about.

 

[Caligulove]

oh yea.

Its why I never actually do research on things on my own computer. Something about it makes it far too easy to get things out of hand and have me completely sidetracked and wasting 2 hours from it... not good

 

[Thaius]

I'm writing a paper right now, and I'm posting on this forum: so yes. Definitely. My professors don't understand the meaning of dead week: I have like 5 papers and two exams this week, before finals. Fail.

 

[A_Parked_Car]

I have the same problem, I was researching for a history term paper...then I realized that I had been reading an in depth journal article on why Napoleon's Empire fell apart for nearly an hour. My topic that I was supposed to be researching was "How are the principles espoused by von Hornick and the Great Elector illustrated in Saint-Simon?s description of court life at Versailles? What does this tell you about the nature of absolutism?"
I have no idea how I got so off topic...

 

[Generator]

Absolutely. It doesn't even have to be a particularly interesting article; as long as it sidetracks me from my work, then I'll make it interesting.

 

[lazy_bum]

When I had to write essays (presumably you're talking about schoolwork and not just for some twisted sense of fun) the Internet was still young enough to be 56k pay-per-minute without Wikipedia and the like, and I was massively lazy so I've not had this problem.

I do however spawn fifty TVTropes tabs, so it's almost the same, right?

(oh i'm talking about work alright) aah a simpler time imagine. managed to get from studying the centrality and significance of the sacraments and eucharist to stuff on pagans focussing heavily on wiccans, along with all the conotations and mis-informatiom there is about them... oops

 

[ShotgunShaman]

I like how nobody has voted no yet. I'm currently supposed to be studying for not one but TWO huge unit tests tomorrow.

 

[lazy_bum]

I like how nobody has voted no yet. I'm currently supposed to be studying for not one but TWO huge unit tests tomorrow.

LOL, only just noticed that.
TWO? ouch that said i've 5 hours to finish 1500 word essay, got 800 odd words still to do, i'm screeeewed.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

It's good to be on holiday, oh yeah!.

Anyway, when I do have assignments though I do get terribly distracted, especially if its online reference hunting. I was browsing through this medical journal site trying to find a case study on NHL patients and before I knew it, I was in TV tropes looking up medical conditions that appeared on programs like House MD.

Fuck me side ways, that site is a procrastination magnet!.

 

[Ben Legend]

Yes, it happens to me. Sometime it isn't even the information that pops up. It is just something that I see in my room that is completely awesome.

...

Like m- OOH! SHINY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m7recXsEKo
Just for you.

I'm trying to do an essay now, well, its due in for Thursday. 2200 words, not going so well, on the plus side the intro to my essay is bloody amazing... I think. =S

 

[KiKiweaky]

not really stuff I'd be writing essays on isnt that interesting, to me anyway

 

[Nickolai77]

Yeah, going on wikipedia to look for citation links or just to read up on something i am not familer with can be fatal.. i would be reading up on the the philsophy of Descarte one minute, and a few clicks later i'll be reading about Star Trek.

 

[teisjm]