The Producers

Yesterday I felt moved to lay off of reading news online, which I mainly get from Slashdot, Reddit, Technocrat, and a slew of technical sites, for a month. I’m just spending too much of my time reading, and absorbing, and not enough time producing and making stuff.
I did it (stopped surfing news sites) for a day a few times, and it made for a very different day each time. In some cases I actually got a lot done. And I’ve tried limiting the time I spend on the sites to, say, an hour or less, using a little kitchen timer to mark out half-hour blocks, but once I get started, it’s hard to stop. Basically, I’m having trouble finding a point of moderation, where I read a little and work a lot.
So a whole month, to try to clean out my system and be able to start over, with the goal of moderation. So far I’m on my second day. When I have the urge to do something other than my top priorities at work (which can be pretty tedious stuff), I either find something less tedious that may not be as urgent, or say, blog a little.
I remember an American pilgrim’s account of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s daily life, in particular that He was constantly busy taking care of everyone’s needs, from ministering to the poor in Akka, to handling correspondence from Baha’is all over the world, and that He would find relief simply in variety, because he never seemed to rest or have any idle time.