All of us have the things we like to tell people we do: play scrabble, read, kayak, hike, play guitar, yoga, cooking, working out, knitting, baking . . . ps I got most of these from the activities section of your facebook page.
There's what we tell people we like to do, and then there's the places where all our time actually ends up. browsing facebook pages (for research!), watching bad tv shows, watching bad tv shows that aren't even current, reading the comments on digg, commenting on digg. whatever it is, statistically this is what belongs in the activities section of your facebook page. I know I spend much more time each year on tv than kayaking.
Sometimes it can be a shock to actually compare the amount of time you spend doing things you value to the time you spend doing things you don't value. How much do you really value hiking or baking, if you don't spend any of your time actually doing it? It's just that thing you tell people you like to do, but you don't.
Every now and then I like to evaluate what I say I like to do and what I actually do. I say I like to go geocaching, and, well, ok all the geocaches were covered in snow until just recently. I think I can be excused there. But now that I've gotten my work hours under control, I have a pretty good pattern of after school activities. I do spend time: working out, cooking, reading, drinking tea, and watching tv. Sometimes the watching tv gets out of hand, but for the most part I feel good about where my time goes.
Now, sometimes and just sometimes (Ha!) the tv stays on Top Chef for a few episodes too long, or I click around in Google Reader just a few more hyperlinks than I should, or I fall asleep on the couch for a few hours and I feel terrible about where the time has gone. The worst is when I start Googling or Facebooking random people because my inertia is preventing me from doing anything but clicking the mouse, I can't even bring myself to turn away from the glowing screen. Nothing on the internet is really that absorbing, I just don't want to put the energy into finding something else to do
What are your huge time sinks?
my time sink is currently reading your blog? haha.
ReplyDeletewhile ive been unemployed, the internet and bad tv probably take up 75% of my day. so you can at least count yourself way ahead of me there.
it's funny how we paint it so morally though. TV, rss feed: bad. cooking, exercise: good. in the end they probably all break even to anyone in the outside world. just time spent...
goodness, what do I actually spend my time 'doing'.
ReplyDeleteknitting, singing, wardrobe_remix monitoring, twittering, going to events and various things with friends in houston. lately, I'm not watching that much tv, because I'm always out, and right now, I'm in a place where I just don't get a lot of tv.
the past week: knitting, reading, riding on busses, surfing the net, sleeping, working. rinse repeat.
What a nice post. Something I definitely want to think about. Coincides with a thought current in a Buddhist community I'm a part of about how highly we value the things we think we value....
ReplyDelete@kate: in the outside world? is that like the gamma rays observing us from space?
ReplyDelete@katie: I'm in a place right now where i'm not giving myself a lot of computer time, not sure why since i'm usually inseperable from my puter.
@B: one of the admins at work would say something at this point about rocks and sand in a jar.