Does Anyone Else Find Themselves Wasting Time?

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For some reason I frequently just bum around on the internet clicking random links that travel to random articles that my eyes trail to a random product, setting, or event which I later look up on wikipedia to garner more information from. And most of the time it's about a video game, movie, or television show, although sometimes I find myself reading current events or past occurrences. All I know is that I rarely ever retain any information I read and it's just a huge waste of time.

In the back of my head I keep thinking "At least I could be playing a video game or something" but I don't. I re-watch episodes of shows I've seen before, re-read certain things, and just generally waste time in the worst possible way. It might be due to anxiety, but if it is I have no idea how I break out of the cycle. Anyone else ever find themselves consciously breaking out of their routine to do something far less?

I'm exactly the same, I try to get myself to do something 'more productive' but ultimately fail.

I've been telling myself I'm going to go to the grocery store for several hours now. Somehow I'm still online.

Me too

Rawwwwwrrrrr!!

same here:\

I think it's mostly fear of not being able to do what I'm supposed to do.

E.g. I have to summarize 2 chapters of this really daunting book (it takes me 30 minutes just to read - not understand- 10 pages).
And there's going to be a grade attached to it, 1/10th of my final grade.

I'm really trying hard to change this behaviour (it has to be possible right?)...

But my head is on overload from this week (just started uni, and I feel like the biggest nitwit as everyone seems smarter, prettier, cooler, more mature, more together and better organized than me).

So everything's just blurgh right now:P

Decorequiem, PatientZero, I have often found myself - and sometimes I still am - facing this very problem. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a good solution. But yes, I have been known to browse the internet for hours, indeed concerning trivial pop-cultural interests such as comic books, television shows, video games, pop music, and what have you. Off-line, I have often watched my DVDs or listened to CDs simply to kill time. And I also spent time in the library reading in encyclopedias and writing some of the entries down in my notebook, because I felt I was lacking in knowledge but didn't have a real drive to go and actually pursue knowledge intensively. Did anything that I read in the encyclopedias or books I borrowed from the library, stick with me? Sadly, most of it didn't.

I think anxiety might have been one of the reasons I was like this (and sometimes still am). Something that added to this anxiety was the feeling that I wasn't particularly good at anything at that point in my life.
But my routine itself wasn't at odds with the activities that were wasting my time. In fact, sometimes, my daily schedules were in their entirety designed for the purpose of whiling away my time. In recent months, I have made my routines and schedules less dominating, though I still have routine in my life. I felt as though I was letting my routines control me instead of the other way around, but that's a story for a different thread.

I do think a solution for the problem of wasting your time, would be to find (or remember) the things that you truly enjoy doing, and the things that truly interest you. Your free time - outside of work, school, or household chores - belongs entirely to you, so you should spend it to your heart's content. Breaking the cycle of wasteful activities may well be a bit difficult, because a body that's standing still, wants to remain still. So if you think to yourself 'I really want to be doing this or that, or be reading such and such, or visiting so-and-so place', expect that you may have to set yourself to it. It may well be worth it, it's why they call it breaking the cycle. I don't think it's supposed to be easy.

This happens to me all the time
I planned to leave the house at 10am the other day to go to town, but somehow I didnt actually leave till about 4pm
I dont know where the time goes.............

I do this all the time. Last week, instead of studying for my business law test (which I still got an 88 on), I went to the Wikipedia "quantum physics" category page and read a lot of the articles.

In fact, I'm doing that right now. I'm working on econ homework and surfing through these forums.

Almost all I do is a time waster in the end, even when I start out feeling productive, I get sidetracked very easily.

My brain is a wealth of information from years of surfing. So often, I have functional information to pass along to others, which they always seem thankful for. When they say things like "How on earth did you know that koala's spines are made of cartilage?" I tell them to spend 10 aimless years online.

Yeah, I find myself doing this. I know I should be doing things around the house, but the chores tend to get pushed back in favor of being online (not really doing anything, either....just browsing) or watching a DVD. I know I'd be better off getting my work out of the way first and THEN relaxing and goofing off, but I have a habit of getting my priorities out of whack and doing the important things last.

I keep thinking i should go play a video game or watch movie. I don't know if anxiety is part of the problem but I know that I have a hard time making up my mind. Like if I decide to watch a movie it's so hard to pick from my 400 or so movies (+every single movie ever made since they are available online). During the hockey season I spend a lot of time reading about hockey but I feel like it's less of a waste of time since i really enjoy it.

[quote="Decorequiem"]For some reason I frequently just bum around on the internet clicking random links that travel to random articles that my eyes trail to a random product, setting, or event

I do this constantly!! ! Usually when I'm trying to avoid doing something that I don't know how to begin (I have problems with executive function and long term planning) but sometimes it's just calming.

Yep, all the above.
Like, at work I'm thinking about all the things I need to do at home.
At home I don't do any of it. Easier to focus on anything other than the present.

I search for things on the internet for hours. I search one article and then I see a certain topic in the article and then I google that. Then I read that article and find another topic to google. Then 10 tabs later......

I wish I absorbed more of the information I read. I think if I actually used the information (write about it - something) I would retain more. Sometimes I read about math topics (stats and probability etc) so I don't forget them. Sometimes I look up topics that I feel like I should know about. I think it's somewhat anxiety driven. It gives me a sense of comfort. TV doesn't give me this comfort. I get nervous with movies. I have a hard time talking myself into sitting for a 1 1/2 hr movie that I will probably not even like. Sometimes I re-watch a movie over and over because I know I will like it.

This happens to me all the time. I can just start 'what should I google...' just come up with something random. Which leads to something else. And else. And else. I can be finding SOOOOO many things. I'm looking up phonetics on one tab, I'm looking up Cat Behavior on another, I'm looking up Feline Gestation on still another, Epilepsy on another still, and so forth. And of course, looking everything up on wikipedia.

Now about re watching the same episodes, and the re reading the same books, that's me. I will even not even read the entire book, or watch the entire episode, as I only read or watch part of it. I re watch The Cat and the Claw Part I&II, each Sat, and Feat of Clay PartI&II each Sun. And of course, re watching Super Ducktales both days. Oh, I also re read the scene in Pebble in the Sky when Schwartz is explaining to Shekt, Pola, Arvardan, Enius, the Secretary, and I'm not sure who else how he managed to eliminate the virus.

Really! I didn't have much time at all, before they gave me a cPap, and now that I sleep with that, and get more rest, and don't take naps during the afternoons, I have more time. Or rather, more time to waste. Cause now I not only just limit it to once a day, I can actually rewatch some episodes twice a day. Or more.