Leaping or skipping about.

The Latin root of desultory means "of a circus reader who leaps from horse to horse" - which sounds wonderful in a way, but which carries connotations of being trapped on a merry-go-round. Dr. Johnson wrote of his friend "Sober" that "[his] art is, to fill the day with petty business, to have always something in hand which may raise curiosity, but not solicitude, and keep the mind in a state of action, but not of labor." Steadfastness is not necessarily a virtue, and changeability need not always be erratic, but this seems an exhausting form of idleness! See: CAPRICIOUS, DISTRACTED, DRIFTER, FLÂNEUR, FLIGHTY.

Desultory was part of the first wave of Swedish death metal bands, alongside Entombed, Dismember, and others. Into Eternity, their Metal Blade debut following a lesser-known EP release, is standard for the genre, energetic and forceful, straddling the line between the more brutal American death style and the melodic Gothenburg variety.

Jumping, or passing, from one thing or subject to another, without order or rational connection; without logical sequence; disconnected; immethodical; aimless; as, desultory minds.

marked by lack of definite plan or regularity or purpose; jumping from one thing to another; "desultory thoughts"; "the desultory conversation characteristic of cocktail parties"

Out of course; by the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject; as, a desultory remark.