With so many distractions around us, it’s a miracle that any one can get anything done.

Anything can be a distraction. With the now permanent integration and dependence on technology, distractions are more prevalent than ever. I know that computers can be used for research, media production and networking but in this research, it’s way too easy to get blown off track, simply by clicking on a link leading to an intriguing concept.

And this is just the Internet, mind you. The little apparatus that sits on your desk or lap can also waste time getting caught up in little applications, whether it’s Photo Booth, Final Cut, Garage Band or any other applications that has the potential to claim hours of your time. That being said, I won’t touch online gaming with a 20 foot pole, or my editor will have to cut about 3,000 words from this column and subsequently deal with me whining to run the column in its original form.

Moving away from the subject about technology using our precious waking hours per day, how many other things can use the time we’ve devoted to being productive? It can be a newspaper, giving you the latest sports statistics. It can be mastering learning new songs on the guitar. It can be indulging in your unsalvageable primal desires to fornicate with your latest “conquest.” It can be anything and everything. How the hell are we supposed to get one thing done, ever?

Doctors think giving speed to little kids is a bright idea. Oh really? Drugging kids? Fantastic! That’s about as great of an idea as giving sex offenders Viagra. But hey, at least the health care industry is making money off our dwindling paychecks. Go government, go!

Here’s the reality: distractions are about five times more common than STDs (one in four … one in four.) The only real way to solve the psychological genocide of productivity is an odd form of empowerment. The great Dr. Emmet Brown said, “if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” The great someone else said, “mind over matter.” This is exactly what we need to be doing. Close the laptop. Put your priorities first, and don’t let 

anything get in your way. Stay focused. Stay disciplined. 

Beause really, I spent all of Sunday watching reruns of “Welcome Back, Kotter” on YouTube. You might have done the same, and didn’t prepare for an exam.

Blame it on anything else, but before you do that, blame it on yourself. Accepting that academic shortcomings have a direct correlation to wasted time won’t save the sinking ship. Consciously deciding to make a change will.