You would think that a Ten on Tuesday topic like “10 Favorite Time Wasters” would be a breeze…but it didn’t turn out that way for me. That isn’t to say I never putter around and waste time, of course. It’s more that I can’t come up with ten specific, different ways that I do it – most of my time-wasting activities fall into fairly broad categories. I’m also inclined to consider something more of a waste of time if I don’t enjoy it and/or it’s totally unproductive; I would be more inclined to consider the activities I like as “guilty pleasures.” Therefore, I decided to split my time-wasters into five “favorite” and five “least favorite.”
For the record, I consider reading books and blogging to be neither time-wasters nor guilty pleasures!
Favorites
Twitter, especially reading some of the @user tweets – it’s like eavesdropping on a party from the fringe of the group!
Google Reader, which never stays empty for very long
Web surfing – these days, that usually means leaving Reader or Twitter to check out links
Shopping (online or off-) without buying anything!
Napping
Least favorite
Sitting stuck in traffic (I live and drive around LA; I do this one a lot)
Being on hold on the phone (especially considering how little I like to use the phone in the first place)
Waiting in line (without a book to read!)
Meetings without a clear agenda
Re-doing something I thought was already finished (which actually makes the first go-round the waste of time, I guess)
How do you prefer – and hate – to waste your time?
I agree with you that reading and blogging are NOT a waste of time, but I did list them, in order to get 10 items. 😛
Have you tried StumbleUpon? It’s FUN. 🙂
I’m with you on all of these – particularly the L.A. traffic one!
Joyce – I just couldn’t count them that way, which is why I structured my list the way I did :-)!
Thanks for stopping by – I liked what you named your list.
April – I think nearly everyone who has to drive around LA agrees about that particular time-waster :-D!
I like the napping idea. I’m all for that.
you don’t consider blogging a guilty pleasure? Maybe I do because I blog when I should be doing other things.
I hate waiting on hold, too. Our home phone buzzes but I don’t want to call about it because I don’t want to wait all day to make an appointment.
Mike – I blog when I should be doing other things too – but I’ve mostly managed to conquer any guilt about it. It’s a valuable outlet for self-expression, and it’s given me opportunities to get acquainted with some great people – and neither of those is anything to feel guilty about, if you ask me :-).
Blog hopping counts as wasting time? I’m so guilty of that! And I admit to napping on the weekends these days.
Going to work came to mind. Haha That’s not a waste of time though. Not officially. 😉
Literary Feline – I think the consensus here is that anything blog-related is definitely NOT a waste of time :-D!
I had to chuckle at your mentioning “going to work” as a time-waster. I know what you mean – some days, if it weren’t for that whole “need to pay the bills” thing…