This past week and a half, I fell into a productivity slump.

I think it began with a painful hair follicle infection in my, well, nether regions that frequently caused sudden sharp pain when I moved. I decided not to go to my school gym (the only one I have time for on my schedule) because I was afraid the pain would screw up my form and make me injure myself. I had to acquire antibiotics and apply hot compresses to get rid of it. Because even sitting down could get uncomfortable, I was less adept at doing work, and became more prone to just relaxing, rationalizing it by a desire to recover.

The snow in NYC has been terrible for the past few weeks. I can't jog on the sidewalks because I would easily risk slipping and breaking bones. The lack of exercise sapped my energy, which made me 'compensate' by eating more junk food, a habit I still haven't gotten over. I wasn't very fully aware of just how valuable healthy food can be to maintaining clarity of thought, because I spent quite a few of my waking hours thinking about what to eat, and getting out of my way to sate my gluttony. I'm not fat, but I know that this is how people get fat.

One challenge that I've been repeatedly failing at is a 30-Day-Trial where I make a habit out of restricting my Internet use. The premise seems simple -- keep Internet browsing to a set amount of time per day on important stuff (school emails, learning German, looking up things for school, submitting online assignments). I'm a college freshman taking a very heavy 7 class schedule (calculus ii, general chemistry ii, c++ programming, macroeconomics, medieval/renaissance history, second semester English literature, and an independent study math class dealing with nontraditional topics). This means that I need to set regular hours every day outside of class, where I explicitly devote myself to finishing homework assignments, and preparing for tests. However, I haven't been able to keep up with this through one excuse or the other. I always end up getting hooked on Internet browsing, forgetting the reason I even opened Firefox in the first place. While I'm still getting things done, turning in all assignments on time, it's as if there's this domino effect resulting from just one specific problem (the painful infection).

The length of this is getting out of hand, and I need to begin my daily business, so I'll just go ahead and post this without editing, hoping that there's someone out there who can relate to my pain. I'd like at least one response to know that I'm not alone in having such setbacks.