After several medical issues popped up, I found myself behind on several projects. I looked around at my activities and found where I was procrastinating and/or goofing around.

The activity that was causing me to lose valuable time was Facebook.

Yes, I like fluffy kittens. Yes, I like turtles! I even save some when they’re crossing the road. I enjoy reading about the exploits of my friends, and I celebrate their victories and mourn their losses.

That takes a lot of time to do. Good writing time, right in my mental “productive zone” time block. So, I did something to fix that. I deactivated (not deleted!) my account.

When I said this on a panel with the brilliant Cory Doctorow, he gave me a smile and a kudos for doing what I needed to do. The other benefit is that a lot of the Facebook-linked spam is reduced. Note to scammers: My brother’s last name is De Marco, not Marco. I doubt he’d mess up his own name when he tells me he is traveling in Malaysia and needs me to send him a big wad of cash.

Yes, I will eventually enable my account, but I have weaned myself from the urge to check it constantly. For now. Until the granddaughter videos start rolling in. After that, I may fall off the wagon…but hopefully not. We’ll see how it goes.

Do what needs to be done, then get it done.