Top Ten Forms of Procrastination at My Desk

10. Facebooking. Who didn't see this one coming? It's the ultimate source of juicy information that's none of my business. In fact, I paused during this post already to check facebook. What would I do if I missed someone's status update indicating their plans for the day? And how would I function without knowing the most recent deets on everyone I went to high school with?!?
9. Vacation planning. I'm a big planner by nature, and, as mentioned previously, I love to travel. And it doesn't have to be somewhere exotic. I just love to explore new places. With Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, Southwest, and BookIt (Try it if you haven't. It's my new fave.) websites readily available, it's easy to let my mind and fingers wander off into pleasant thoughts about where else I would rather be.
8. Eating & thinking about eating. I might be admitting I have a problem here. I have a desk drawer exclusively dedicated to snacking. It might contain entire jars of peanut butter, popcorn, crackers, cookies, and snackpacks of all varieties. It is also equipped with forks, spoons, and napkins. I also have a inconspicuous candy bucket on my bookshelf. To boot, there's a snack machine down the hall, constant reasons to "celebrate" with food, and a friendly co-worker with a penchant for having the occasional lunch out.
7. Rapport-building (and tearing down for that matter) with co-workers. We are lucky enough to work in an environment that encourages teamwork. In order to have teamwork, the team must talk. And as one might suspect, we often get off topic. It's easy to, say, begin planning an event, and end up talking about Ginger's latest antics.
6. Emailing. While this is part of my job responsibility, I often find myself doing some casual, personal emailing instead. With the majority of my close friends working in their first couple of years in grown-up jobs, we all have our grown-up email accounts to play with. And, of course, we may appear to be adults from a distance, but we're really probably planning the coming weekend's debauchery.
5. Bloggie bloggin'. You think I type all this in my free time? No way. At least half of this gem is produced during working hours. To my credit, alot of my job is to answer questions from volunteers, which sometimes involves just waiting around for the next question.
4. iPhoning... and iTexting... and iFacebooking... and iWeatherChecking... and iGamePlaying...
3. Babydreaming. Similar to daydreaming, but involves more diapers, onesies, and cribs.
2. Plan-solidifying. Surprising to most of the kiddos and volunteers I work with, I have a life outside of these walls. A busy one at times. In order to fit everyone in, I'm always busy texting or calling or emailing friends, family, & Muscles about where to eat dinner that night or who wants to go to the baseball game. Of course, this could be avoided if plans could be solidified in advance, outside of working hours. But they can't. And that's an asset as far as I'm concerned. If I make long-term (say, a week in advance) plans, I sometimes break them if I'm not feeling the activity. I hate doing that to friends and the like. So... I try to avoid that song & dance altogether and, instead, make short-term, last minute, fly by the seat of my slacks plans.
1. Being generally overwhelmed. Most days, I have more work to do than I could possibly complete. This is the nature of the nonprofit beast. As a result, I have learned to prioritize in accomplishing tasks. Sometimes, however, I get so overwhelmed with this workload that my brain seems to fall out. At this point, I know I'm ready for a break, and perhaps for one of the activities listed above.