Getting Rid of Time Wasters
December 7th, 2007
Photo by Trinity.
Today I removed the StumbleUpon toolbar from my computer. I shouldn’t even say that I removed it – I simply disabled it. Not that removal of a free firefox add-on is any more permanent than simply disabling it – but still I couldn’t bring myself to uninstall.
It’s the first step in an effort to remove time drains from my life.
I know, it seems like it’s not much of a step, but being that I was probably spending an hour (or more) a day clicking through random sites, it should actually free up quite a bit of time for better pursuits.
I’ve been frightened by the amount of times over the past two hours that I’ve found myself trying to click the stumble button that is no longer there.
Of course, there were some benefits to having the toolbar installed. I found some interesting sites that I might otherwise never have come across. Okay, that’s really the only benefit that comes to mind at the moment. I found that it fed my short attention span. Find something interesting? Bookmark it and come back later, then press the button and move on to something else.
I’m sure that it can be a powerful tool when used correctly or, at least, in moderation. It’s probably a great way to drive traffic to your site if enough of your readers use it and recommend you.
I, however, will be testing my willpower and seeing if I can leave it disabled and not look for a replacement way to mindless surf the web.
This whole thing has me thinking about how much time I could free up if I removed other sources of distraction from my life.
TV
I probably spend three hour a day watching tv. Granted, this is usually background noise to some other pursuit, but I’m sure most of these other pursuits could be finished more efficiently if tv was not involved. I do not need to be watching Simpsons reruns while playing with my son, writing emails or working.
I do think that background noise is justified for some pursuits – mainly when working on craft projects. Of course, once again, I could think of better background noise such as music or perhaps even conversations with friends.
Video Games
Are usually used as a treat after a long week at work, but sometimes (lately) they’ve been getting too much attention. I always think I’ll sit down to play for just a few minutes, but then I find that the hours have gone by and I have nothing to show for it. I can’t really justify this at all, except that everyone needs some down time, but there are many better ways to relax.
Online Poker
Perhaps this is just an extension of video games, being that it’s merely a recreational pursuit for me. But at some point I need to come to terms with the fact that I’m not very good. I doubt that I’d ever feel comfortable wagering large sums of money on this, thus would never really be able to make large profits.
Flickr
It’s so easy to get caught up looking through other people’s photos. Especially when you look at the most interesting photos… but it’s not productive in any manner. I used to be able to justify this when I was a wedding photographer, but now that I’m no longer actively pursuing that, Flickr has become one more drain on my time.
Those are the biggest drains on my time at the moment. I think I’ll whittle away at them one at a time.
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