For a long time, I had been preparing myself to learn French. I collected countless resources, put together a detailed study plan, and even created an Excel spreadsheet to organize my YouTube learning sessions. But in the end, nothing happened.
I had wasted so much time scrolling here and there, searching for the most promising YouTube channel—the magical one that would somehow make me speak French better than a native speaker in just three months.
But now, I was finally satisfied. I had collected all the resources I wanted. The plan was ready. Everything was perfectly organized.
And then, procrastination knocked on my door.
I woke up early, at 6 AM, grabbed my phone, and started scrolling through Facebook Reels for a little while. Suddenly, it was 8 AM, and I was still scrolling. Only then did I realize that I had spent two entire hours doing absolutely nothing.
Okay, I really need to get out of bed.
But wait… I was hungry.
I opened the fridge, stared at its contents, closed it, and opened it again. I had absolutely no idea what to eat. I kept searching, as though something new might magically appear.
It was now 9 AM.
Then, a brilliant idea struck me: a cheese sandwich!
I opened the fridge again and took out some frozen bread.[^1] [1] In Egypt, it’s common to store bread in the freezer to preserve it and keep it fresh for longer. But instead of heating it directly, I decided to wait for it to defrost naturally. I prefer letting bread return to room temperature rather than putting it straight on the stove.
So, naturally, I went back to scrolling through Facebook Reels.
It was now 10 AM.
At 10:30 AM, I finally finished eating and was ready to study some French.
I opened my study plan and my carefully organized Excel spreadsheet. Looking at all those resources, I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to finish everything in a single day.
I started watching the first video, then the second. Halfway through, I decided to pause for a quick five-minute break.
Five minutes. That’s all.
Except that somehow, without even noticing, those five minutes turned into an entire hour.
It was now 1 PM.
I thought listening to some music might help me regain my motivation. So I put on my favorite songs, hoping they would somehow reignite my enthusiasm.
But when the music stopped, I was abruptly overcome by profound lethargy and a complete lack of drive.
Burnout.
Or at least, that’s what I told myself.
I picked up my phone again. Just a little scrolling, I thought.
An hour passed.
Then I spent another thirty minutes chatting with friends.
Eventually, I realized how much time I had wasted. Perhaps I should do something productive. Maybe watch an AI tutorial or learn something technical.
I opened a tutorial, but my attention was constantly drifting toward my phone. I kept checking for new messages, switching between my WhatsApp accounts without any particular purpose, opening Facebook, reading half a post, and closing the browser before finishing it.
Then back to WhatsApp.
Checking for messages.
Then Facebook again.
A little more scrolling.
Then my email accounts. I opened each one and marked everything as read, because for some reason, seeing unread messages bothered me enormously.
It was now 6 PM.
Alright. Time to read a little about Operating Systems.
That sounded productive.
I opened my book and started reading. But before I could finish even two pages, I found myself back on YouTube, watching Shorts and listening to tech guys discussing the latest developments in the industry.
AI slop, NVIDIA, Linux, PHP4Shell, and how to build your own home lab.
Wait… a home lab?
What a brilliant idea!
I immediately started researching home labs. I watched more videos, asked my friends for their opinions, compared hardware specifications, and checked prices on Amazon.
After all that research, I finally decided to put the idea on hold.
I’ll come back to it later.
Back to YouTube.
Oh, look! My favorite YouTuber just uploaded a new video!
But it was fifty minutes long.
Fifty minutes? That’s a lot of time to waste!
I couldn’t possibly afford to spend that much time watching a single video. So I promised myself I would watch it before going to sleep.
It was now 9 PM.
Bedtime was approaching. Perhaps I could end the day on a productive note by reading some of Gorky’s work.
I opened the book.
One page.
A second page.
And then…
A new WhatsApp notification.
I picked up my phone and fell straight into the same trap again. What started as a simple reply turned into a pointless conversation that left me with nothing but an empty mind.
Eventually, I put my phone down and thought about the day.
I hadn’t accomplished much. In fact, I had barely accomplished anything at all.
Tomorrow will be different, I told myself. Tomorrow, I’ll be serious. No distractions. No wasted time. I’ll finally do everything I’ve been putting off.
But tomorrow came, and nothing changed.
My weak willpower, combined with the way modern technology preys on my most primitive impulses, had turned my days into an endless cycle of distraction and regret.
One day blurred into the next.
I was constantly consuming information, yet learning almost nothing. Constantly searching for ways to improve myself, yet never actually improving. Constantly preparing to begin, yet never truly beginning.
I had become nothing more than a consumer, draining my mind day after day to no avail, watching my life drift away without leaving behind anything meaningful.
And perhaps the most disturbing part of it all was that I was perfectly aware of what was happening, yet somehow, that awareness alone was never enough to make me stop.