Like the clip above, I get into a technology loop every time I get online. I start here but then I end up there. By the time I realize what’s happened, I’ve watched 17 videos on YouTube, read 13 articles on Wikipedia, read a few emails, spaced out on Tumblr for 30 minutes, etc, when I really just wanted to know when the next season of Portlandia was going to premiere. While this is, yes, a focus problem. I believe it begins with my aim to do a lot.

I’m a perfectionist, therefore I am obsessive to a blessing and fault. I’m also a completist, and I use that term lightly and loosely to give a word to the fact that I like my queues to be at 0. I have so many queues — a YouTube unwatched videos queue, my iTunes New Album playlist of albums I’ve downloaded that I need to listen to, a bloglovin’ blog post queue, a Hulu TV shows queue, a Gmail unread email queue spanning 2 email accounts, a Twitter Favorites filled with tweets of articles I’ll read or write about later … queue, my Goodreads and personal library of books I need to read queue, a projects queue, and the list goes on.

I guess with these lists of to-consume items I have something to look forward to, but if I could look forward to one thing only it would be not to have anything to look forward to (in terms of queues). I’d rather not have something on a list to look forward to (but I have to). Today I was reducing my paper trail (which is on my queue of to-do), and I internally debated with keeping some old loan statements, you know, just in case. As soon as I had the thought I looked at the other piles of paper. I was exasperated! I immediately shredded the loan statements: two at a time. If my shredder was of better quality, I would’ve shredded them all at once. The less the better. The less the better. The less the better.

I believe in that statement so much that I typed it 3 times instead of copying and pasting. I want to post it everywhere, but you know — the less the better.

While I could just delete my accounts or delete my subscriptions to all of these queues, I wouldn’t be happy because the reason I even have them is to be fulfilled and educated and be in the know and connect with people. With that said it’s not a bad thing to want those things, but a queue of 0 would make me feel so happy and weightless. It would also mean that I’ve accomplished all of these wants. An exchange occurs with consumption: gained is knowledge, lost is time.

I just have to make sure what I choose to consume is worth my time.

Definitely watch Portlandia on IFC. The third season starts next year. Plenty of time to catch up.