How not to slack off ?

Living in US sure has way too many distractions. For a easy going graduate student, who wants to experience everything his university provides, life seems like an adventurous journey of Indiana Jones. But its usually not very late until you realize that Mike Slackenerny used to feel the same way when he was in his first year.

How not to get distracted is the big question. But do not get excited, I am not giving out the answer in public. At least, if I knew it. Since I too am a grad student who gets distracted by every little video that comes out on stage6.divx I can kill to know the answer (kill mosquitoes not homo-sapiens). In theory one could find millions of books and sites which claim that they know the answer. But as Morpheus one said, knowing the path is different (and boring) than walking the path. So I am going to try out something different this time.

1. Using Google calender, I have put up milestones for the entire month. For example, finish reading with Network Coding till March 7, start searching for wireless project ideas on March 10 and so on.
   
2. It is very important to make realistic targets. I remember one of my friends, whose plans for the final exam read like: 'Finish entire syllabus of Physics and Chemistry till Monday, redo all the 15 assignments on Monday night, do all the practice problems in the book on Tuesday morning, etc'. Trying to poke a hole in the sky might make you a better archer but eventually you will get frustrated with constant failure. You might take consolation in the fact that you have done good work and the aim was just too high anyway. But this is when you make failing a habit and lower your confidence. You start taking challenges which are either too easy (so that you are sure of completing them) or too difficult (since failing it is already your second nature). Again, from experience, if targets are constantly on the higher side and you happen to achieve one of them, it does feel great at first. But the victorious feeling tends to persist longer than it should and starts affecting the next target.
   
3. I think if targets are spaced out properly, I will be able to take out time and be guilt free at the same time.

Let us see how this one goes.

Update (3/5): Here is now my calender looks now. The brown entries correspond to day-to-day activities and commitments. The blue entries correspond to the milestones set by me. It seems to work out well so far since I am able to achieve my goals and do even low priority tasks (such as going to the gymnasium).
By the way, the cool photo is from Google calender. And it seems DivX Inc. took my comment to heart and shut down stage6.divx - God bless them.