Everyone’s been there. You sit down at your computer to finally write that English paper you really should have started a few days ago, trying to pretend that you are truly excited to sit at your desk in order to slave away for the next few hours. However, deep down, you already feel yourself succumbing to drowsiness and would rather be anywhere else—namely, in a bed. The Word document sits open, waiting, the cursor blinking for your attention on the first line. Then, as the unappetizing enormity of the task at hand finally hits you, you decide that you have time to watch just one Youtube video in order to mentally prepare yourself. And that’s when the downward spiral starts.

I continually experience the destructive nature of the lures of the Internet. For example, I sat down to start writing this blog post two hours ago, and after sifting through videos of three-year-old ice skaters and intense police car chases, I realized that I actually needed to put something to paper.

I believe that I have found a partial cure for this penchant for delaying, however. For all of you who have suffered from extreme procrastination problems, I highly recommend that you try the wonderfulness that is Self Control. For those who are unaware, Self Control is a free application, downloadable from the Internet, for Mac OS X. Chronic procrastinators can also download the application for the iPhone. The nifty app allows you to block any website(s) you choose for between 15 minutes all the way up to 24 hours. During that time, you cannot access the websites or disable the application until the timer runs out, even if you shut your computer off.

Now, I have been told that there are ways to dismantle the app if you do something technical enough. But fortunately, I am not at all technologically minded and therefore have no idea how to do this. And there is the slight problem of convincing yourself to actually set the timer, as I demonstrated above. However, you’ll just have to try your luck and see if you have enough “self control” to help yourself be productive.