As is so often the case, a single thought will kick off an entire blog post.
I asked myself the above question some few days ago just before shutting down Twitter. Not quite in disgust, but distaste. I was just scrolling, doing nothing and generally feeling more and more “Eww” as I went along.
That got me to thinking – not at first, but eventually – about how I was spending my limited down time.
Was I doing anything new? Anything interesting, or was I just, as the saying goes, killing time?
The problem with that, as the saying also goes, is that time’ll kill you right back.
Now, before I get any further, let me be clear on one thing:
Sometimes you need the comfort of the familiar. A few days ago, I was running on empty and I needed a bit of fun, so I watched a movie. it was one I’d seen several times before and it did exactly what I needed it to do.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Until it becomes a habit.
It’s when you find yourself doing the same things over and over again is when you start to run into trouble.
Confession time:
I’ve got Twitter both on my laptop AND on my phone. I have switched from one platform to the other without even getting up and moving from the room.
It’s a habit, that I’m breaking.
It’s almost the same thing with Instagram – which is my feel good platform. I’ll sit there and watch other people having a good time – which does make me happy, but I’m not getting out there myself.
And I don’t want to send the wrong message here. I’m not comparing myself to those folk. I can’t actually be in all of those places all at once, doing all of those things. I’ve just come to the realization that I’m watching, when I could be doing.
There’s times and places for that. Standing in line, for example. Now it could be argued that lines are also a good place to get a bit of spot-reading done, and this is true, but sometimes you don’t have the headspace for that and just want a quick bit of happy.
So I’m actively taking a couple of weeks to look at how I’m spending my idle time. Then I’ll have some choices to make.
What could I be doing right now?
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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