Simplicity

"The mind can be permanently profaned by the habit of attending to trivial things, so that all our thoughts shall be tinged with triviality.  Our very shall be macadamized, as it were.... Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.  Conventionalities are at length as bad as impurities"  
- Henry David Thoreau "Life without Principle"
  
So many options in this vast age of technology.   On one hand we're gifted with nearly endless resources but we are also bombarded with trivial facts and quick sources of "entertainment".

As I browse youtube trying to look for a video to preview the upcoming lecture, there's always some video that catches your attention.  Every day there is an advertisement or suggestion that is fine tuned to your browsing history as collected by the various websites.

This does not merely apply to trivial celebrity updates or the newest music videos, but also more relevant videos such as TED talks.  Which at the time, may not feel like a waste of time, but may not be the most pertinent video to watch at the time.  

For the most part, I consider myself pretty discipline as to what i browse or how I spend time on the internet, but every once in a while one vine turns into 3 or 5 minutes of wasted time.

Entertainment has it's place, but it should serve as something that makes you feel more energized afterwards, and ready to attack the task at hand.  However, many times the trivial videos Facebook "friends" add about fights, women, conspiracy theories, TV show updates, memes, etc.  I will say that bane cat video was pretty funny tho.  Facebook can be a great way to connect with friends and family, but it takes small amounts of will power to ignore the "spam" that's being passed along the feed.  It has been said that we have limited amount of will-power as indicated in this study:
NY Times: limited will power

That's why I decided that my word for 2014 is simplicity.  I'm striving to make my daily schedule and routine more simple and orderly in order to save creative thoughts and decisions on things that truly matter.