Between Twitter, Facebook, news sites, and a few other productivity-sucking locations on the web, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I lose between 5 and 20 hours per week engaged in brainless content consumption and social interaction.

Here’s the thing though — I don’t carve out time to waste every day. There are dozens of times per day where I mindlessly open up a new tab, visit Facebook, and drool on my keyboard (slight exaggeration).

So I find myself constantly interrupting…myself throughout the day. I did it while composing this post, even though I know the punchline and solution in place!

Anyway.

I don’t talk about it very much here, but I’m a geek. Really, I’m fascinated with technologies that would make a non-technical person weep with boredom.

Using this to my advantage, I put a very simple tweak in place on my computer. Without boring you with the details, I configured my system to send me to a very boring site (that I built and run) every time I visit one of my time-wasting sites.

And every time it happens, it’s a (small) surprise since wasting time and distracting myself is something I’ve practiced for years.

There’s no telling how long this experiment will last (a man can only go so long without checking for friend requests…), but it’s a small step towards the awareness that can help me eliminate the self-sabotaging (and subconscious) behavior.

Wish me luck.

But not through Facebook.