By Gail Blohowiak
(fribble, fribbler, fribbling,etc are real words)
I have learned to fribble. I’m a very good fribbler. Fribbling and writing are not compatible.
My pandemic life is full of useful and useless items. I try to focus on useful and productive items.
It seems that some weeks Zoom has taken up my life. I Zoom with my two writers’ groups, my two book clubs, and two friends’ groups., and a critique group. I Zoom a lot. I even Zoom Happy Hour with a group of friends.
Other times, I fribble. I fribble a lot lately too.
Fribble is those times when I go to do something productive and end up doing something unproductive.
I make it to my office and open my document files with all the good intentions of doing edits. My motivation is lax and soon I check emails and FaceBook posts. I know I should silence my phone and iPad, but I don’t. I attend each zing or new notification! It might be a video of my youngest grand doing something cute! I can’t miss this!
I get distracted by listening to the news on the radio of on the T.V. playing in the background. I get distracted by the need for coffee, water, or a potty break.
My intentions are exemplary! However, I quickly descend into fribbling away another good hour or two until a Zoom meeting begins, until it is lunchtime until someone distracts me with a lawnmower, trimmer, or garbage collection.
The mail is another distraction – I can now identify the exact time the mail carrier arrives at our mailbox and I can identify the hour the Fed Ex, or Amazon drivers drive our cul de sac. I am vigilant with these tasks. But, when it comes to editing or writing, I fribble!
I never used to be a fribbler! I was always focused on the job at hand. I spent my time engaged in productive endeavors.
Now, on the way to the kitchen for a refresh of coffee, I watch the birds at our feeder, or I count the seeds on the ground and wait for the squirrel or chipmunk to come around for cleanup duties. This isn’t a true fribble. I now call this ‘being in the moment’. It’s not. It’s fribbling!
If any of you reading this has suggestions or a foolproof cure for fribbling, please contact me via an email, text message, FB post, or Zoom Room. I still have my notifications on. I have not gone silent. I will not add this to my lists of fribbling activities. I will count it as an intervention to put me back on track to writing and editing. Please Help!
Copyright 2020. Gail Blohowiak. (920) 360-6235. gailblohowiak@gmail.com