Time Magazine had a wonderful collection of articles on the brain in the Jan. 16 edition. I’ve always been fascinated by the brain; in fact, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon at one point in my younger life. (I’m sure there are scores of medical school professors who are glad I chose another course.)

Anyhow—the article on multitasking included some new words that I thought you all might find interesting since they are likely to apply to anyone who’s into blogging.

Screen sucking: wasting time online long after you have finished what you signed on to do. Ex: “I’d be done with my first draft if I hadn’t got caught up screen sucking.”

Frazzing: frantic, ineffective multitasking, typically with the delusion that you are getting a lot done. The quality of the work, however is poor.

(I need to teach my family that when I LOOK busy–doing many things at once–that’s actually the best time to interrupt me. It’s when I don’t look busy–when I’m sitting very still staring at something–that’s when I’m most occupied.)

Pizzled: How you feel when someone you’re with pulls out a cell phone or BlackBerry and uses it without an explanation or apology. A cross between p-o’d and puzzled.

Doomdart: the internal distraction of a forgotten task that pops into your mind when you are doing something else. A side effect of frazzing. (Oh, yeah . . . I know that one!)

Angie