CornerScribe

Time Wasters

more cat pictures

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that I do that take time away from what I’d rather be doing (writing.) I’m sure many people have the same issues I do. I fall into a rut and find myself spending lots of time doing things I shouldn’t be doing.

• Television. This is a gigantic time suck. The one solution is to quit watching so much darn t.v. Of course, that’s easier said than done sometimes. If you’re like me, then you actually LIKE television (some of it anyway). So sue me. My solution is to watch only things I really like and stop just watching because something is on. I use Netflix and MythTV (like TiVo for geeks) to have better control over what and when I watch.
• Tweaking. Spending an hour searching for new wordpress themes isn’t really productive work. Neither is any number of blog-related activities I spend time on. I’ve started asking myself if what I’m doing will really help get me where I want to be.
• Networking. Don’t get me wrong, real networking is good. Spending two hours chit-chatting on twitter probably isn’t good. I’m not saying that I never take time to have fun, but I don’t kid myself into thinking that I’m doing something writing-related when I’m not.
• Reading Blogs. I love keeping up with lots of blogs, but I can easily use an hour or two this way without realizing it. About once a month, I go through and start purging my RSS feeds. If I haven’t read a blog in a month, and I haven’t really missed it, chances are it’s going to get removed.
• Research. Real research is great, but sometimes I find myself spending way more time “researching” than what is needed. If I’m honest, I’ll recognize that what I’m doing is avoiding getting started on the real work.

When it comes right down to it, most of these are often forms of procrastination. It can be tough to settle down and get busy, but it’s well worth it. What are some of your biggest time wasters?