Adult AD/HD Ambitions #5: Pick Your Battles

Is there something in your life you'd like to improve? Set a goal and track it with us here.

I discovered a socnet called iRovr today. It's an iPhone only socnet so it intrigued me. NOT because it would allow me to be an elitist boob looking down my nose at all the poor people saddled with their clunky, unsexy cellphones (as some pundits pontificate), but because the site was designed to utilize iPhone features and I'm a geek and that sort of thing is like pollen to a bee for me. Any web browser can access iRovr, but as you can probably see it is formatted for the iPhone. My splendiferous profile is here.

I can go on and on about the iRovr stream and how freakin' cool it is and how you should all buy an iPhone so you can experience the pure joy of social networking iPhone style (did I mention the freakin' cool the iRovr stream interface yet?), but I recognize iRovr for what it really is: A time vortex. As I told somebody earlier today, iRovr (and socnets in general) eats up time as if time was a bag of distraction flavored potato chips. I will not be sucked in! I will not. Stay away from the vortex!

It's not that socnets are bad for you. Used properly they can be very entertaining, providing contact with other users with shared interests. iRovr offers news, art, polls, and community, but its main appeal seems to be hooking up, which, I'm sure my wife will be happy to hear, is not something that really interests me. Some would question the viability of "hooking up" with another person thousands of miles away, but my wife and I courted through letters the old fashioned way for years so you don't have to convince me of the lure of socnets for social dating.

Still, socnets have a potential for abuse, and I'm not just talking about subjecting the world to pictures of your bare bottom. MySpace, FaceBook, iRovr, etc. all require time to manage friend lists and time to ingest all that data. iRovr's stream updates with the push of an icon and it is very heady to see so many links, movies, pictures, blogs, and comments selectively filtered or featured all in one place. An AD/HD news junkie would wish for such filtering power on all news sites. If you like that sort of thing, and you are not careful, you can waste a lot of time chewing on a lot of empty calories. This segues nicely, however, into my goal for the week.

Freely spinning distractions are not evil. They can relax the mind and provide entertainment. Of all the socnets I have signed up to and explored, iRovr is the one that fits me best. If I get to know more people there, and find their streams of information interesting, I can see iRovr becoming a big distraction, however. This is a problem for me since I have goals I'm supposed to be working on. When we do not live with focus we have nothing to show for our use of time. Freely spinning is fun, but it isn't ultimately satisfying to me. I choose instead to pick my battles.

My goal for this week: Pick My Battles

All of life is a battle for my attention. Not all battles should be fought, however. Some should ignored. This week I'm going to try to use discernment to pick the proper battles. I have so much to accomplish this week. I have to wrap up old assignments to pick up two new web clients for March, nevermind finishing the work to get paid for it. Then there's all the work I need to do for my daughter's upcoming album and summer tour and you can see that I really can't spend much time spinning anywhere, especially in place — lost in a virtual social world — no matter how "freakin' cool" the interface is.



Pick a goal for yourself this week and chart it here. AD/HD doesn't have to control you, but you have to gear up for battle if you want to win against it. Comments on this posting will close in a week.



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Comments

Anonymous said…
dude this is by far the best article ever! You my friend can take this to the tech crunch bafoons!! That'll show them!
This is going to my favorites and you are getting a friend request!!

Ohh yeah welcome to irovr! :D
February 25, 2008 9:37 PM
Anonymous said…
So true.. Welcome :)
February 25, 2008 9:40 PM
Anonymous said…
Cool article. iRovr can consume all of your free time. I think the fact that it works with the iPhone and is mobile adds an expectation that everyone is connected all the time. That can be a lot of pressure if you get caught up in it.
February 25, 2008 9:41 PM
Anonymous said…
With all due respect, your blog title is incorrect. This site is freakin cool AND a serious distraction. But just because its hard to put down and constantly calling you back to check in "just one last time" doesn't make it any less productive than any video game, social networking site, or frankly even porno sites, all of which fill a niche in modern society. The key difference with iRovr and what makes it stand out from any site that has come before is its mobility. With its elegant integration with the industry shattering iPhone, it allows people like me to pen thus response while traveling in a wired shuttle bus going 60 MPH on a freeway. It helps entertain me at a time when I normally wouldn't be "productive".
--- JAMES ---
February 25, 2008 9:41 PM
D.R. Cootey said…
James is referring to the blog title I posted this under over on iRovr:

iRovr: Freakin' Cool or Serious Distraction?

My reply was as follows:
With all due respect, James, keeping entertained while on the bus may be better than boredom, or even a kick in the teeth, but it's not the same thing as being productive. But you won't find me under appreciating iRovr here. I just can't finish my video project and design web sites while I'm using it.
February 25, 2008 9:43 PM
Sylvana said…
My goal for this week besides maintaining my sanity is to make a decision. A very specific one.
Good luck with yours!
February 27, 2008 12:58 AM
D.R. Cootey said…
Thanks, Sylvana. I've been doing well so far. Instead of trying to do everything at once I'm making a concerted effort to prioritize what projects I should tackle and when. I realize highly successful people do this without thinking, but for me it is a very, very foreign process. Good luck!
February 28, 2008 6:36 PM
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