From the OED online:
Futz:
[Origin uncertain; perh. alteration of Yiddish arumfartzen (Amer. Speech (1943) XVIII. 43).] intr. To loaf, waste time, mess around.
From Merriam-Webster online:
Main Entry: futzPronunciation: ˈfətsFunction: intransitive verbEtymology: perhaps part modification, part translation of Yiddish arumfartsn zikh, literally, to fart aroundDate: circa 1930slang : fool around 1 —often used with around Koegel
Today was one of those days when I futzed more than I wrote. I could blame it on the fact that my husband had a medical procedure this morning that took up my mental space, or that I was having fun finding a new theme and format for this blog (which I’m very happy with), or that I had a mild headache most of the day. The fact is, though, I was simply “futzing around without producing any worthwhile music”… or words. I need writers’ beano to prevent the futzing. For me, writers’ beano often means limiting my access to email and other ways to fart, er, futz around on the internet.
I have an hour between supper and the time when our family is scheduled to watch a movie: I will turn off my email and browser, open a Word document, and write as though my life depended on it. Then I can go to bed happy.
I futz around with the internet or the TV. Another distraction is sometimes my cat. There are times were you have to turn everything off, just listen to music, and type.
Lol about the cat! I agree about the need to turn everything off sometimes. I have started writing more things in longhand for that very reason. I’ve also heard a good tip of taking a laptop to a coffee shop that does not have WiFi. 😉
Coffee shop sounds nice. I find it hard to find a quite spot where there is no WiFi. When I was younger, I wrote in the halls of my high school or in the art studio or outside on a bench. All I had was a journal and pencil, no laptop. I still carry a journal with me everyday, but I hardly have the same kind of time to just sit down and write.