Texting And Driving: Please, Don’t Do It

Warning: The above video is quite graphic, but that’s exactly the point.

When I’m driving and I see someone texting on their phone while driving, I feel a flash of anger. Why? Because that person is putting the safety of everyone around them at risk. And for what? So they can be in constant contact with their friends/family/work? Unless they’re a brain surgeon giving life-saving instructions via SMS to a trauma team as they drive to save someone’s life, they don’t need to be texting or checking their email.  If it’s really that important, pull over for a few minutes and get your communication done. Phone calls are bad enough, but with a phone call your eyes are at least on the road – texting adds road-blindness into the mix, making for a lethal combination.

Texting while driving needs to become as socially reprehensible as driving drunk; people who do it need to be chastised and shamed by their peers and by the public.

“The Little Book of Procrastination Remedies” by Leo Babuta

“Procrastination is one of those topics that, it seems, I can’t write enough about. There isn’t a person among us who doesn’t procrastinate, and that’s a fact of life. It’s deep within us. We think we’re going to do something later, or read that classic novel later, or learn French later. But we always overestimate how much we can do later, and we overestimate the ability of our later selves to beat procrastination. If our current self can’t beat procrastination, why will our future self do it? I thought I should cover some of the best procrastination-beating strategies, in light of my recent book, focus. People seem to want ways to beat procrastination, so they can actually get down to focusing. Here’s a quick guide.”

I recently started following a new blog called Zen Habits, written by the interesting and compelling Leo Babuta, and his post on procrastination really got me thinking. If you struggle with getting things done sometimes – and who doesn’t? – then you owe it to yourself to give this a read.