My Morning Internet Routine

As regular readers of either this blog or my excruciating Twitter feed (@CharmedLassie) will know, I'm a stay-at-home research student and wannabe writer. This means I have to scavenge for self-discipline and remind myself that the only person who loses out if I don't get anything done is the idiot staring into space and listening to Radio 2 most of the day. However, I've noticed that my morning routine, before I can get started on any work, is very ordered and specific. Maybe even worth documenting?

• The first website I visit is Facebook due to the fact I'm playing three games on there at the moment. Yes, a waste of my time, perhaps. But they have the advantage of keeping me at the computer, or getting me there for set periods of time to harvest crops or build up my city. Whenever I'm sat at the computer my conscience inevitably kicks in. Plus, they offer little incentives: work for an hour and you get ten minutes tending to your farm. It actually works.
• My email pops up in the corner. I check (mostly delete) all that and log into Twitter while I'm sorting out my Facebook games. I'm obsessive; I have to read all the way back to where I left off the night before. I respond to anything directed at me.
• I visit The Telegraph website. I scan the homepage but I'm mostly interested in the 'Comment' section. I get riled, I respond to articles and I send any interesting ones to my Twitter feed.
• I go to The Guardian website. I visit the 'Comment' section and then usually the 'Culture' page, again sharing anything I find of interest.
• The Independent website is my next stop. What I use this for mainly are the headlines on the right-hand side. They're really good for breaking and recent news stories, several of which end up on Twitter.
• I go to the New Statesman website and check out their homepage.
• Next port of call is The Spectator Blog page, full of political observations and stories that, while interesting, probably wouldn't make it onto mainstream news sites.
• Next it's the BBC News site! Local news then most-read stories. I then check out the 'Entertainment' section.
• It's the turn of my Google Reader page. I scan the updates from the blogs I'm subscribed to and read/respond where appropriate. Then I look at the sites related to articles I may want to write for Lesbilicious.com and plan those into my day.
• I check my university email.
• I FINALLY GET TO WORK!

Is this obsessive? Looking at it like that, I think it might be. However, I do have a severe craving to be well informed. I blog about both writing/reading and current affairs and, though I'm blowing my own trumpet a little, I feel like I'm pretty up-to-date with what's going on around the world. I know people who really don't care what's going on in Westminster or the Middle East and I struggle to understand the apathy. I would just much rather know.

And I do get to work eventually... honest.

Am I the only one with this sort of rigid routine?

New Year, New Routines

Today is the first 'proper' day of 2011. The day when everybody goes back to work and the zeal for giving up smoking or chocolate fades as they realise it's January and the months ahead are hidden in a shroud of financial woes.

For me, however, today is the day when most of my resolutions (or decisions as I called them) kick in. From now on an average weekday should progress as follows:

Wake up at seven to the radio alarm, currently tuned to Smooth but that may change if Simon Bates doesn't settle into the role. Have cup of tea, check email etc, have half an hour on the Wii Fit then have my cereal whilst getting going on my reading for the day.

Mornings are devoted to primary PhD reading, accompanied by Smooth first then BBC Radio 2 from ten onwards. From Ken Bruce we slip seamlessly into Jeremy Vine whilst I carry on with the reading. At two o'clock I leave Steve Wright to his pointless shouting and retreat to have an lunch-hour in front of the television watching some of the many films, documentaries and dramas I've got stored up. At three o'clock I disappear into my office for secondary reading and/or PhD theorising or writing.

At five o'clock the PhD is replaced by writing time. Full-stop. I refuse to neglect my writing just because my PhD should be a full-time job. So, allowing a break in there for dinner, I'll write until about eleven. At that point I fall into bed, read for an hour, then hopefully fall asleep to do it all again the next day.

I think I must be nutty. What do you reckon?