Focus

So how come I am reading far less for fun books (book candy even) now then when I was in college? One would think that I might have at least as much time now as when I was a rather busy student. Oh wait...I'm a rather busy student again. Like I was telling my neighbor this afternoon, I'm reading a ton (and enjoying it of course), but it's just not the same as me getting to chose what I want to read. To put this in perspective, I have read about 200 pages in a John Grisham book and it has taken me over 2 weeks now...and I'm a pretty decent reader. This is also the first book that I have chosen to read for fun since the middle of August. I have so much problem getting the newspaper read every day! But then again, I'm having lots of problems focusing. As I'm writing this, I keep thinking to myself, "You should be reading the newspaper while you have the chance..." yet I just spent several minutes (wow, it's been around 30 now) looking up a random friend from years ago who I haven't thought about in ages just so I could think of something to do while I listened to a good song on the radio.

I have decided that I have taught myself how to not focus, or better said, how to focus only for a short amount of time because my days are constantly spent moving quickly from one activity to another. I never have the luxury of sitting down for an hour just to read for fun, so my mind doesn't need that skill to focus for that long. The problem is that I do need to do sometimes mind (and butt) numbing acitivities like homework that require my attention for more than 20 minutes. Yet I'm distracted by something as simple as my cat yawning. I have no solution, but I'm worried how absolutely distracted I am all the time. Solutions? Help? Suggestions? I'm learning quickly that being an adult student is vastly different than being a "typical" college student...and I'm only 2 years removed from college. I guess that things change. Darn.