Distractions !!!!!!!!!

I was going through an online comic strip magazine, where I stumbled upon a series of strips titled Newton's Laws of Graduation. The third law was the best one, which goes like this:

For every action towards graduation, there is an equal and opposite distraction.

Well, who knows this fact better than me? From the point of entering the department to the point of exit, there are so many distractions that even if I am able to dodge a couple of them, another dozen come and disturb me! I am leaving out my apartment from the discussion, as when I am home, hardly any action towards graduation takes place.

There is a notice board in the department building just opposite the elevator. Pressing the 'up' button of the elevator, I walk towards the board to read the announcements. If I find something interesting, then no matter how many times the elevator beckons me, I go through it thoroughly, think about it for a while and then finally come back in front of the elevator.

As I enter my office, I settle myself in the chair, switch the computer on and keep a couple of journal papers from my bag on the table. Then, I feel a thirst for coffee, and getting myself a cup from the workroom (a few yards from my office) , sit back again . As I am about to read the first word of the paper, suddenly my brain reminds me that I've to check the department email. Deleting 11 spams of the dozen mails, again I try to concentrate on the journal. If I am able to go through the abstract, I turn my attention towards the computer screen to check the mails from yahoo and gmail!

Switching among the tasks of reading, checking and replying emails and sipping coffee, the coffee ends first. Then comes the urge of smoking a cigarette. So going down, I smoke hastily and rush back within 10 minutes. As I make progress through the paper (i.e., read the first paragraph of the introduction and grasp it), I try to scribble something on a sheet of paper, and luckily, if I am able to understand the very first equation, I feel that I should take a break by playing a couple of games of Tetris.

This game is my biggest distraction! If I get a good score in the first couple of attempts, I stop there and come back to the reading. But if I'm in a bad form, and get unsatisfactory scores, then I keep on trying to improve the score, and as a result, couple games turn into a few dozens, the eyes turn red and at the point where I can no longer stare at the screen, I take a break and go to wash my eyes. When I come back, my mood is bitter due to the failure, and there comes the need of another cigarette, another distraction!!

Suppose everything is fine and I am able to put off all the distractions aside. Then, inevitably, some friend of mine will call for nothing (because he is being distracted also!! ), and we start chatting. This happens in most of the weekends from both ends. Other than this, the office phone can ring, somebody can knock the door or I may feel to know about the result of the overnight cricket match, the review of the latest bollywood flick, the upcoming films of Aamir Khan - in short, both my mind and the surroundings conspire to distract me from my actual job.

All these will take place under the assumption that I am able to understand the journal article. But if that is not the case, then one can imagine what may happen! I will glance at the page for a while, then open the Tetris thinking that it may give me some idea, or go down to have a smoke in order to stimulate the brain cells and all sorts of things which I think will help me to understand the article. As a last refuge, I go to the library to fetch a book , but finally end up at the wrong rack (novels , drama, short stories, DVDs ! ), and so when I come back, I may not have the academic book I was looking for, but I will have at least two novels and two DVDs at my disposal!

So the key question is, what can I alone do against all these distractions surrounding myself? I think I have to find this first before carrying on with my academic research!