Wrangling Time Wasters

I'm trying to work out a system for myself so I can self-impose some restrictions on the time I'm wasting online. We all spend time online in one way or another and how we categorize our time is an important consideration we need to make when trying to figure out if we're spending more time than we should be online. For me, I'm finding that it is coming down to a fairly simple categorization of two different types - recreation, and productivity. I'm using the word productivity because I can't figure out what else to call it at this point. What I'm thinking of is mainly personal email and calendar activities. If I'm simply reviewing my inbox, I don't think that should count as recreational time. However, if I'm clicking through on emails to watch videos or read articles, it moves into the realm of recreation. Emails are mainly used, from a productivity standpoint, for information. Someone is emailing to either give you information or ask for information. In some cases where they're giving you information, the information in question can fairly easily be categorized as recreation. Example: For years I have ordered guitar parts and tools from Stewart MacDonald. They're a great company and I've never had an issue with anything I've ordered. Their expertise in identifying which quality products to carry is, in my opinion, second to none. I am on their mailing list so I receive regular correspondence from them in my inbox. Most of it is either to make me aware of new products, to let me know about sales on current products, or to link to content explaining how to use their products in specific scenarios when dealing with various projects. If I open up the email and review the information in the email, I can make a fairly quick determination of whether I'm interested in taking a deeper dive. That doesn't take long and I think it is within the productivity realm of simply managing one's inbox. If I want to take a deeper dive and learn more though, it moves into the recreational category. Want to know how to fix a broken pickup? Sure, you can click... but it is going to cost you in terms of the overall time you're allocating to recreation. So that leads us to the next point of the system. Now that we've begun (or I've begun... as it is in the experimental phase at this point) to categorize what does and doesn't classify as recreational activity when it comes to screen time, how much time is reasonable to allocate to this recreation on a daily basis? For me, I'm looking at the day in terms of the 24 hours I have available and the number of other priorities I'm trying to address. The things I need to do, and want to do, and how much this all takes away from my total hours available. Keeping in mind of course that about 1/3 of that time goes away because of sleep. It is important that we all make time in our lives for recreation. That we all spend time doing things we enjoy doing. And for me, I enjoy sitting and watching YouTube, or surfing through random sites, or reading the news. Lately it has been a routine of watching horror movie series after Jack goes to bed. The point is, this is ok. Provided it is within reason. The problem I have is a lack of boundaries. If I am deliberate about the amount of time I am giving myself daily, it becomes a miserly quest to spend that time as efficiently as possible, and to prioritize exactly what I'm doing so I don't squander it. Because right now the biggest problem is that I don't appreciate it, so it becomes a true waste of time in every sense of the word. Recreation isn't fun anymore when you have to plan for it, so it should still be something that can be scattered across the day spontaneously. But it needs to be monitored, for me at least. So here's the system. I give myself an hour every day (starting tomorrow, since I'm sitting here typing this in the afternoon and haven't counted any of my time online today) and set a countdown timer. Each time I spend recreational time, the timer starts and the time counts down. Until there's no time left. I'm hoping this can be a satisfactory solution to my current issues around lack of control. I don't even know how much time I spend online, for that matter. Perhaps it would make for an interesting study to START a timer every time you go online recreationally, then see what you end up with at the end of the day. I'm not going to do that because frankly I'm worried about what I would find. But in the meantime, we'll start with an hour countdown and see if it works. I can always adjust the time as needed but the larger goal is simply to create more awareness around how I'm using my time and try to discontinue bad habits in favor of allocating more time to the more important tasks that I need to be concerned with on a daily basis.

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