287 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
287 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
#[1]Deadspin - All stories
|
||
|
||
* [2]The A.V. Club
|
||
* [3]Deadspin
|
||
* [4]Gizmodo
|
||
* [5]Jalopnik
|
||
* [6]Jezebel
|
||
* [7]Kotaku
|
||
* [8]Quartz
|
||
* [9]The Root
|
||
* [10]The Takeout
|
||
*
|
||
* [11]The Onion
|
||
*
|
||
* [12]The Inventory
|
||
|
||
Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise
|
||
[13]Send us a tip![14]Shop[15]Subscribe
|
||
|
||
[16]Home[17]Latest[18]Baseball[19]Football[20]Basketball[21]Hockey[22]G
|
||
olf[23]Soccer[24]The Mourning
|
||
After[25]Wrestling[26]Lists[27]Tennis[28]The
|
||
Fights[29]Olympics[30]Racing[31]Poker[32]Media[33]Locker
|
||
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
|
||
Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise
|
||
|
||
[34]Home[35]Latest[36]Baseball[37]Football[38]Basketball[39]Hockey[40]G
|
||
olf[41]Soccer[42]The Mourning
|
||
After[43]Wrestling[44]Lists[45]Tennis[46]The
|
||
Fights[47]Olympics[48]Racing[49]Poker[50]Media[51]Locker
|
||
Locker
|
||
|
||
Spend Exactly None Of Your Time Killing Time
|
||
|
||
By
|
||
[52]Chris Thompson
|
||
PublishedJanuary 25, 2019
|
||
We may earn a commission from links on this page.
|
||
Image for article titled Spend Exactly None Of Your Time Killing Time
|
||
Illustration: Chelsea Beck (GMG)
|
||
|
||
Here’s a good resolution, if you’re the sort of person who resolves to
|
||
do good and healthy things and then maintains any hope of actually
|
||
doing them: Resolve to divide your waking hours exactly and only
|
||
between doing things you should be doing, and doing things you want to
|
||
be doing.
|
||
Watch
|
||
The end is nigh for the Clippers Kawhi & PG era | Keep it a Buck(et)
|
||
Share
|
||
Share this Video
|
||
[53]Facebook[54]Twitter[55]Email
|
||
[56]Reddit[57]Link
|
||
[58]view video
|
||
[59]The end is nigh for the Clippers Kawhi & PG era | Keep it a
|
||
Buck(et)
|
||
Who asked for a Charles Barkley & Gayle King CNN show? NOBODY! | The
|
||
SEO Show
|
||
Wednesday 3:18PM
|
||
Are you sick of talking about Aaron Rodgers yet? | Agree to Disagree
|
||
Tuesday 5:18PM
|
||
|
||
When you are not doing something you should be doing—straightening up
|
||
around the house, taking out the garbage, walking the dog, your job—you
|
||
should always and only be doing something you actively want to be
|
||
doing, like reading a book, or playing video games, or pursuing a
|
||
hobby. Conversely, when you are not doing something you want to be
|
||
doing, you should always and only be doing something you should be
|
||
doing. This is a good resolution because it’s not aimed at some
|
||
specific result that deviates a whole lot from who you are already,
|
||
like overhauling your diet or your sleep regimen or whatever. No
|
||
overhaul required, here. You already do plenty of what you’re supposed
|
||
to do, and plenty of what you want to do. Resolve to stop doing
|
||
anything else.
|
||
Advertisement
|
||
|
||
But I already do this, you are saying, as you sit at your desk, not
|
||
working, procrastinating, avoiding work by dicking around on the
|
||
internet and winding up on a dumb-ass late-January blog about, of all
|
||
things, self-improvement. No! Right now, you are not following this
|
||
very good advice. You are not doing what you should be doing—unless
|
||
what you should be doing is reading blogs—nor are you doing what you
|
||
really want to be doing, which is parasailing or skiing or hunting
|
||
moose in [60]ye olde cowboy game. You are killing time, waiting for
|
||
either the energy for work or the consequences of not doing work to
|
||
give your life some feeble structure. Stop it! Killing time is the very
|
||
habit we are trying to address, here. There’s barely enough time as it
|
||
is.
|
||
|
||
Along the way you will need to hone your sense of what things you
|
||
should be doing. You know the most obvious ones—they’re occupying the
|
||
margins of your consciousness all the time, bearing down on you and
|
||
poisoning the time you spend not doing them. Chores, assignments,
|
||
projects, bills, phone calls, repairs, and so forth. The list is a
|
||
little bit longer than that, which is both good news and bad news. It’s
|
||
bad news because it includes things like talking to your folks on the
|
||
telephone, or listening patiently while your spouse rants about their
|
||
day, or brushing your teeth—things you put off doing nearly as much as
|
||
work but which, I’m afraid, must be done. But it’s also good news,
|
||
because by acknowledging that those are responsibilities, you have also
|
||
earned the right to take some satisfaction from having fulfilled them.
|
||
$300 off Outdoor Furniture Set on Amazon
|
||
Save 33%
|
||
$300 off Outdoor Furniture Set on Amazon
|
||
|
||
Make your patio the place to be
|
||
This 7-piece outdoor sectional furniture set is marked down from $900
|
||
to $600 on Amazon right now.
|
||
[61](BUTTON) Buy for $600 at Amazon
|
||
Advertisement
|
||
|
||
Sometimes you have the bandwidth and energy to address your attention
|
||
to the things you should be doing, and other times the thought of
|
||
getting your car inspected or working out or washing a sinkful of
|
||
dishes fills you with a sudden urge to throw yourself down a well. When
|
||
you have the energy to do the things you should do, do them, or keep
|
||
doing them. When you don’t—and this is crucial—go ahead and give
|
||
yourself permission to set them aside for another time. But—and this is
|
||
also crucial, because it is the lesson of this damn blog—when you give
|
||
yourself permission not to do the things you should be doing, please
|
||
spend the resulting block of free time doing something good and cool,
|
||
something you genuinely want to do.
|
||
|
||
You will also need to hone your sense of what it is you want to be
|
||
doing. Today, the thing I most want to be doing in all the universe is
|
||
riding Splash Mountain. That activity, I am afraid to say, is
|
||
completely out of the question, in no small part because I am supposed
|
||
to be doing the thing I least want to do in all the universe, which is
|
||
working. Since I would certainly rather die than actually work, I’m
|
||
going to do something else. But what? It helps to start all the way out
|
||
at riding Splash Mountain, because understanding want in terms of
|
||
genuine desire keeps you from slipping into the shitty headspace of
|
||
just measuring activities against the dread and misery of work. In
|
||
almost all cases I would rather be watching Law & Order reruns than
|
||
doing chores, but that doesn’t mean I really want to be watching Law &
|
||
Order reruns. In the endless list of things I could conceivably do with
|
||
a day, watching Law & Order reruns is probably closer to doing chores
|
||
than it is to riding Splash Mountain. In fact, I often default to
|
||
watching Law & Order reruns because some part of my brain recognizes
|
||
that it keeps me anchored in place near the chores, and isn’t so joyful
|
||
that I can be said to be really enjoying myself, which is clearly
|
||
something I don’t deserve.
|
||
Advertisement
|
||
|
||
So it is with scanning headlines or surfing Instagram or refreshing
|
||
Twitter, the grey shit you do compulsively when you are
|
||
procrastinating. Yes, you would rather be doing those things than
|
||
painting your living room—anything, including bleeding from the
|
||
eyeballs, is better than painting—but that doesn’t necessarily mean
|
||
they’re worth a shit. If you’re not going to paint the living room,
|
||
that’s fine! But now use the time on something good! In my case, if I
|
||
start all the way out at riding Splash Mountain and work backward from
|
||
there, long before I get to watching Law & Order reruns, I will arrive
|
||
at things like bowling or going to the movies or hunting moose in ye
|
||
olde cowboy game. Those are things I find myself wanting to do, but
|
||
rarely give myself permission to do. Ask yourself, “What are some
|
||
activities that would be genuinely fun?” Make a list! Cross off the
|
||
stuff you know you can’t do, and then pick and do one of the ones you
|
||
can. Go to the zoo. Watch a horror flick. Try out a new bar. Read a few
|
||
chapters of a good book.
|
||
|
||
It can feel reckless and irresponsible to spend your day bowling or
|
||
baking or hunting moose in ye olde cowboy game, but a big chunk of the
|
||
guilt associated with these activities stems from not really giving
|
||
yourself permission to do them, at least in part because too much of
|
||
your average day is already given over to tweeting at Jonathan Chait.
|
||
But it’s healthy and productive to do cool and fun things that enrich
|
||
your life! The solution, here, is to buy yourself the time to do the
|
||
really interesting things by first being honest with yourself about all
|
||
the sweaty hours you waste tweeting at Jonathan Chait. You are a
|
||
successful and prolific time-killer because you’ve got a selection of
|
||
ways of doing it that are marginally less dreary and more stimulating
|
||
than folding laundry or managing spreadsheets, and some inherited
|
||
puritanical impulse that tells you you’re still close to upright so
|
||
long as you’re not actually enjoying yourself. Bullshit! When you are
|
||
not doing what you are supposed to do, do something you genuinely want
|
||
to do. That’s the rule.
|
||
Advertisement
|
||
|
||
Of course, there will be any number of times when you are prevented
|
||
from doing any of the things you want to be doing. The rule is also
|
||
this: When you cannot do what you genuinely want to do, do what you are
|
||
supposed to do. Here is a good life hack: when you lack the bandwidth
|
||
to take on an important chore or duty, you probably still have the
|
||
bandwidth to make a list of all your important chores and duties. Do
|
||
that! This counts as a thing you should be doing, because often enough
|
||
in making the list you will hit on something that requires little
|
||
enough of you that you can take it on right away, without too much
|
||
suffering. And even if you don’t, the making of the list will bring you
|
||
a little closer to addressing yourself to the items on it, and that’s
|
||
enough of a positive step that when the time comes for you to do
|
||
something you want to do, you will feel the satisfaction of having
|
||
earned it, through work. That’s what’s missing from the shame-soaked
|
||
hours spent avoiding and procrastinating: the feeling that you deserve
|
||
to have a good time, and the permission to have one.
|
||
|
||
Of course, you will probably fall short of dividing your time exactly
|
||
equally between responsibilities and pursuits. Don’t think of that as
|
||
failure. When you remember this wise practice, when it occurs to you,
|
||
treat it as a rule and follow it. Ah, right, I said I wasn’t gonna sit
|
||
here stewing in my anxiety all afternoon, so instead I’m going to go
|
||
see [62]Into the Spider-Verse. Good plan! You are going to end the day
|
||
with something to show for it, and that’s the whole idea.
|
||
|
||
IFRAME: [63]https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-T73GPNQ
|
||
|
||
References
|
||
|
||
Visible links:
|
||
1. https://deadspin.com/rss
|
||
2. https://avclub.com/
|
||
3. https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904
|
||
4. https://gizmodo.com/
|
||
5. https://jalopnik.com/
|
||
6. https://jezebel.com/
|
||
7. https://kotaku.com/
|
||
8. https://qz.com/
|
||
9. https://theroot.com/
|
||
10. https://thetakeout.com/
|
||
11. https://theonion.com/
|
||
12. https://theinventory.com/
|
||
13. mailto:tips@deadspin.com
|
||
14. https://store.deadspin.com/
|
||
15. https://deadspin.com/newsletter
|
||
16. https://deadspin.com/
|
||
17. https://deadspin.com/latest
|
||
18. https://deadspin.com/baseball
|
||
19. https://deadspin.com/football
|
||
20. https://deadspin.com/basketball
|
||
21. https://deadspin.com/hockey
|
||
22. https://deadspin.com/golf
|
||
23. https://deadspin.com/soccer
|
||
24. https://deadspin.com/locker/the-mourning-after
|
||
25. https://deadspin.com/wrestling
|
||
26. https://deadspin.com/lists
|
||
27. https://deadspin.com/tennis
|
||
28. https://deadspin.com/the-fights
|
||
29. https://deadspin.com/olympics
|
||
30. https://deadspin.com/racing
|
||
31. https://deadspin.com/poker
|
||
32. https://deadspin.com/media
|
||
33. https://deadspin.com/locker
|
||
34. https://deadspin.com/
|
||
35. https://deadspin.com/latest
|
||
36. https://deadspin.com/baseball
|
||
37. https://deadspin.com/football
|
||
38. https://deadspin.com/basketball
|
||
39. https://deadspin.com/hockey
|
||
40. https://deadspin.com/golf
|
||
41. https://deadspin.com/soccer
|
||
42. https://deadspin.com/locker/the-mourning-after
|
||
43. https://deadspin.com/wrestling
|
||
44. https://deadspin.com/lists
|
||
45. https://deadspin.com/tennis
|
||
46. https://deadspin.com/the-fights
|
||
47. https://deadspin.com/olympics
|
||
48. https://deadspin.com/racing
|
||
49. https://deadspin.com/poker
|
||
50. https://deadspin.com/media
|
||
51. https://deadspin.com/locker
|
||
52. https://deadspin.com/author/miserableshitehawk
|
||
53. https://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=facebook
|
||
54. https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=twitter&text=The end is nigh for the Clippers Kawhi & PG era | Keep it a Buck(et)
|
||
55. mailto:?subject=The end is nigh for the Clippers Kawhi & PG era | Keep it a Buck(et)&body=https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=email
|
||
56. https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=reddit&title=The end is nigh for the Clippers Kawhi & PG era | Keep it a Buck(et)
|
||
57. https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989
|
||
58. https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989
|
||
59. https://deadspin.com/kawhi-leonard-paul-george-clippers-doomed-1850379989
|
||
60. https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-like-chopping-firewood-in-red-dead-redemption-2-1830178593#_ga=2.215259543.149258240.1547482638-1486199056.1525795056
|
||
61. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Choice-Products-Sectional-Conversation/dp/B0863D974H/ref=sr_1_1?asc_campaign=InlineMobile&asc_refurl=https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904&asc_source=&tag=kinjadeadspinpromo-20
|
||
62. https://film.avclub.com/superhero-dimensions-collide-in-a-funny-gorgeously-psy-1830700647
|
||
63. https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-T73GPNQ
|
||
|
||
Hidden links:
|
||
65. https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904
|
||
66. https://deadspin.com/search
|
||
67. https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904
|
||
68. https://deadspin.com/search
|
||
69. https://deadspin.com/locker
|
||
70. https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=deadspin&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fspend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904%3Futm_medium%3Dsharefromsite%26utm_source%3Ddeadspin_twitter&text=Spend%20Exactly%20None%20Of%20Your%20Time%20Killing%20Time
|
||
71. https://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fspend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904%3Futm_medium%3Dsharefromsite%26utm_source%3Ddeadspin_facebook
|
||
72. https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fspend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904%3Futm_medium%3Dsharefromsite%26utm_source%3Ddeadspin_reddit&title=Spend%20Exactly%20None%20Of%20Your%20Time%20Killing%20Time
|
||
73. mailto:?subject=Spend%20Exactly%20None%20Of%20Your%20Time%20Killing%20Time&body=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadspin.com%2Fspend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904%3Futm_medium%3Dsharefromsite%26utm_source%3Ddeadspin_email
|
||
74. https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904
|
||
75. https://deadspin.com/charles-barkley-gayle-king-cnn-show-the-seo-show-1850379370
|
||
76. https://deadspin.com/aaron-rodgers-jets-trade-news-oversaturation-1850375353
|
||
77. https://www.amazon.com/Best-Choice-Products-Sectional-Conversation/dp/B0863D974H/ref=sr_1_1?asc_campaign=InlineMobile&asc_refurl=https://deadspin.com/spend-exactly-none-of-your-time-killing-time-1831777904&asc_source=&tag=kinjadeadspinpromo-20
|