I heart Pinterest.

But it is killing my work routine.

I’ve long found that the beauty of working at home is that you can take an eight-hour work day and squish it into about five if you really concentrate – four if you let your toddler veg out in front of the “Wonder Pets” on repeat mode for at least two episodes.

I left the office several years ago and headed into the work from home frontier. Day one: I plopped down at the computer in my home office - a laptop precariously balanced on the edge of the dining room table a bit too close to the uncleared breakfast bowls. Immediately, I longed to lean over and chat with my cubicle mate.

I missed lingering at my friends’ desks and walking back and forth to the water fountain while I gathered my thoughts for my next story.

Yep, those luxurious days of workplace lethargy were gone. It was time to get my work done and get it done pronto. Soon, the benefits outweighed the social losses. I was done with work in time to, dare I say it, have free time.

My editor at the time noticed too. When her boss questioned why I was allowed the luxury of reporting to work in my jammies, in my kitchen, she told him that my production levels at home had almost doubled. My focus was amazing.

And with Facebook streaming on the side of the screen, talking to my friends became a technicality. We talked, just not face to face. Two birds, one stone. Ta da!

I haven’t sat in a cubicle in seven years.

However, Pinterest may kill that run. Pinterest has become the ultimate co-worker – for good and bad.

Whether it is decorations for my son’s birthday party, legitimate research for a story or dumb pictures of cats hanging upside down, it’s there. Anything I want to see, it will bring to me. It’s like having a co-worker who is willing to talk about everything you want – for hours.

And I can’t. Stop. Looking.

I check Pinterest when I turn the computer on. I check it before I turn the computer off. I checked it when I sat down to write this story and told myself, ‘I needed to, for inspiration.’ Whatever.

When I’m stuck on a word, I check Pinterest, not for the word mind you, but I need to know if my friend on the East coast noticed the way cute Halloween candy bags I just pinned.

I check it when I get up to refill my coffee and when I run to the restroom. Click your tongues if you want, but you know I’m not alone.

I love Pinterest, but I also love my condensed work day.  

So tomorrow, I will make a vow to sit down at my home office, now moved to a vacant spot on the kitchen countertop, and shun my dear Pinterest. I will write my stories without seeking its advice on beachy theme weddings or Easter decoration tutorials. I will reclaim my five-hour work day! 

And spend all the extra time I save, pinning, later that day.