PG: Disconnecting Distraction

You could adapt that idea here, with the Gilligan's Island concept of "powering" certain tasks. It would be interesting to configure your computer to require you to regularly move your mouse (or finger on your trackpad) to keep the browser window from fading away or to "power" a check of your email. But could you make it annoying enough?

I used RescueTime for a few months before realizing I was asking the wrong question i.e. (Where & how long do I spend my online time?).

The correct question, for me, was to spend as much time online as I wanted as long as I have completed the things I wanted. Once you start browsing, while you are supposed to be working, you go into this downward spiral, and before you know it, it's the end of the day, and you have not done much.

So, a better solution for me, is to enable this gem of a software called Freedom (http://www.ibiblio.org/fred/freedom/) that disables all wireless & ethernet networking on my computer for up to three hours at a time, and I can go about doing my work for those hours. At the end of it browse a bit, and enable Freedom again.

Is wasting time on..TV, MMORPGs, the Internet, senseless magazines etc. really that much of a problem for us as individuals? Procrastinating obviously robs time from "useful" activities like working, but how much use are these activities, really? Work applied correctly certainly brings humanity as a whole to new and better pastures, but I'm wondering whether this is really the case for me as an individual.

Personally, I find it very pleasant to waste time. If I don't have anything in particular to do (when I'm on vacation, for instance), I get bored with whatever time-sinks I have in about two weeks and quickly move on to something that brings me forward as a person. But if there are demanding activities occupying my mind - when I study, or learn a new skill, or have a job - wasting time seems to become a natural and healthy part of my life. Four hours a day seems like a good ballpark figure - according to this I spend 28 hours every week doing nothing, in addition to whatever useful things I do the rest of the time. I fail to see how this is a problem.

To me it seems as if recreation naturally follows from any demanding activity. If you get 8 hours of real work done every day, what is the problem if another four are spent doing nothing? Or even if you only get four hours of real work done every day, or two, you will still produce more wealth than an average Joe would be able to produce 80 years ago. I guess what I'm questioning is the aspiration of being great if you don't find it natural.

Doesn't this apply even, as PG writes in "How to do what you love", if your work is the most interesting and rewarding part of your life? Even great minds need rest.