What truly inane activities do you waste time on?

[Anonymous]

I just spent an hour and a half researching about professional athletes and drug doping…. I’m not an athlete. I don’t know elite athletes. I have nothing to do with sports. I have professional interest in understanding those with drug addiction, but not the type of drugs used in athletic sports doping…… and the history of it.. pretty shocking really. trainers running around with syringes. what people will do to be “the best”.

*head desk* why…i had no plans tonight and this could have been a night of sleep so I can be productive with school work tomorrow. but instead it is 12am and I am chewing a wad of 10 sticks of gum. I did something similar until 3am on monday night. I’ve been up since 6:30am..after 6.5 hours of crappy sleep and an 11 hour day of work..i should be tired!!!!!!

p.s. this is really tame for me. I’ve spent 6 hour chunks on similar inane activities.

p.s.s. my jaw hurts from all the gum.

p.s.s.s. I don’t do this on the meds. i was going to go to bed early..i was going to do some extra schoolwork.. and the meds died at about 8:30pm..then I was doneeeee. they can’t save me from the nighttime hyperfocus. I even discovered that the meds cure my gum addiction. bam meds die and here i go mindless internet surfing and gum chewing.. and mind racing. i was so calm when I got home from work.

p.s.s.s. plan. get off the internet now.. and maybe I can make bed before 1am. and make sure I set the bathroom timer (i lose time on the toilet..sad times).

ok go!

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[Anonymous]

LOL, I do the same thing. Never read anything about drug doping though… I think it’s because reading about something you don’t know anything about wakes up the brain. Even though it’s not shiny, it’s NEW. And I’m CURIOUS. About ANYTHING.

(short answer, gotta go!)

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[Geoduck]

facebook! UGH!!! It’s such a time suck and I’m totally addicted. Really, I like that I can keep up with long lost friends (at least the ones that haven’t become completely insane…there’s a story or two there).

It’s 3:30 am here. I’m getting older and starting to have more hormonal issues, including insomnia. Don’t want to read, so what do I do? Facecrack. Oh, and this site, but I get good info here, so I don’t consider it a waste of time

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[Anonymous]

I definitely waste time on the internet. This forum, for example. News headlines are another. Gave up Facebook over a year ago, thankfully. An article I posted as a link in another thread talks about decision fatigue and how it impacts us as we go through our day, making it harder and harder to apply willpower to resist things like surfing the internet, watching tv, eating, impulsive buying. That’s for non-ADDers, we have it worse!

Also, I waste time making to-do lists of things that I haven’t got a hope in hell of completing. The only positive of that is when I realize just how much I think I can do versus what I can really do.

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[Tiddler]

I get lost in ‘researching’ stuff too. I want a dog, so it’s been breeds and their characteristics, how to train them etc for the last month or so, along with learning everything I can about ADHD.

And, yes, if something pops up on the news or someone mentions something I haven’t heard of, bang goes an hour or two as I find out everything I can about it.

What really p’s me off is that the next day I can’t remember a darn thing about it, unless it’s something along my knowledge base already – like if it’s to do with education.

I really want to do a research degree. If I can tackle the paperwork problem with the help of meds and/or a coach, I think I have a shot at it, but if I can’t get a handle on it, I’ve no chance.

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[Wgreen]

Whenever anybody asks me to net out the ADD downside, I always respond… “squandering.” ADD is certainly complex and seems to present different problems for the numerous members of our club. But I put squandering at the top of my list of afflictions.

Many of us squander lots of time, to be sure, busying ourselves with all manner of things, from forum posting and Web surfing to pacing to daydreaming to gaming to meaningless, inconsequential activities. But then time is not the only thing we find “inane” ways of wasting; we frequently squander so many other things, as well: our money, our potential, our talents, our relationships, our opportunities, our careers, and all too often our very lives. If ADD can be compared to a hurricane—leaving incalculable personal devastation in its wake—then the propensity to squander certainly is a major generator of the convection that gives the storm so much destructive power.

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[Anonymous]

I had to look up a definition of squandering, but I think you are right, Wgreen. It definitely applies to me.

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[nellie]

Count me in as well, definitely squander lots of time doing things that are inconsequential to the bigger picture. However, I think the bigger question is what do you do about it? I would say for the most part the cause is about avoiding the less palatable required things one needs to do. But in terms of sleep this is more complicated. I know I need to go to bed at a reasonable hour yet I don’t. Instead I might watch mindless reality shows or go online. The only thing that seems to work with me is to remind myself of the larger goal.For sleep I have even scheduled it – surprisingly it worked but I didn’t keep at it. I try to picture how miserable I’ll be the next morning, sometimes that’ll get me to bed at a reasonable hour. But not always.

I can keep shuffling through a mundane activity because I know it will lead me to something I really want. To be honest I just took a lunch break right now to get away from my ever oppressive basement project! But I knew once I got on here it could be a big time vacuum so I set my stop watch to 10 minutes and times almost up! I try to visualize a usable space and somehow keep ploughing through it!

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[Anonymous]

Nellie, keep me posted about what works to get yourself to bed at a reasonable hour. I know I need to, but I’ve been flailing at this my entire life! Just now after the ADD discovery, am I determined to actually conquer it.

facebook is definitely a time sink for me as well.

BBC news.

this forum.

no dopamine, maybe that is why i get in my worst internet trances at night?

I don’t feel like I’ve squandered my life. However, I do think that I could increase the quality and richness of my life by not wasting so much time. Although, at this point in my single young adult life, I may be staring at the ADD fork in the road. I am at the very edge of compensation for school and work. Being unable to include relationships and family would surely be squandering of life. which is why I am at this forum!

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[Anonymous]

10 minutes doesn’t buy much time on this forum!!!

I’m getting better at recognizing when I’m low on energy and vulnerable to time-wasting, so at least I’m aware of it as I’m doing it. The next step is choosing something different to do, like go to bed! Somehow sleep doesn’t seem as entertaining, it always seems like a waste of time even though I know I need it. Now, if I could turn my dream-making machine on while I was still aware when I went to sleep, that would be cool!

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[nellie]

Sugar, I attribute my lack of liking a routine to the ADD so was just thinking maybe that’s why it’s so hard to set a regular bed time.

I find the only times in my life where I can keep a bed time is if I plan my evenings. But that’s way to boring and I feel like after dinner it’s my free time. I find it hard to put on the brakes and could stay up all night.

And like you no_dopamine, I always think I’m going to miss something if I go to sleep!

It’s now 12:45 and I think I signed in here at 12:15.

So now I’m really going to bed!!!!

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[Anonymous]

nellie, thank you for helping me brainstorm about my bedtime block. i suppose it is one of the only times of the day in which there is a less stringent time block. there is no one forcing me to go to bed. the deadline for bed is artificial and regulated only by me (lol part of the problem). the block is just so intense. and it is weird because I am fortunate that I am not plagued with nightmares.. i do fall asleep (because I take sleeping meds)..nothing to fear about bedtime. one negative variable is that i always feel shitty in the morning. the early i need to wake up, the shittier. so don’t want to go to bed just to look forward to feeling shitty? but doesn’t explain why i can’t get to bed when I’m doing something i look forward to the next day.. nor explain why i won’t go to bed no matter how tired i am. just sort of bizarre and have been this way since being a small child.

tonight i am determined to go to bed early and i think it will actually happen tonight. i had a horrible day of work and i’m too drained and pissed off to hang out with people. also so irritable that being awake right now sucks. just want to make it a new day. maybe i’ll get to bed before midnight for the first night in weeks? lol. 1am last night..not cool when 6:15 is wakey wakey time.

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[quizzical]

What do I waste time on? So many things, but here’s one:

News coverage of disasters! Double whammy this week with the earthquake and the hurricane; nothing is getting done. Have to watch the broadcasts, have to check the web sites…..

The worst part is the way this stuff just kicks my mind out of the practical realm. Everything stops. There’s disaster in the air!

Right now just typing this is taking twice as long because my computer is in slow-motion mode as I’m trying to install a program to let me watch a live Web Cam from the Outer Banks. Sigh.

I’m justifying all this by saying that eventually we’re going to lose power thanks to the wind and rain- maybe THAT’ll stop me!

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[trashman]

hope you all stay safe.

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[quizzical]

Thanks, Trashman! We were lucky to be on the western edge of the storm, and so far we see no signs of any damage in our neighborhood. We measured 3 inches of rain total. All last night we had lots of wind – I slept but woke up a lot!

We lost power off and on all night, but it always came back on – our longest stretch of no electricity was under 2 hours.

And today the lights are on, and here I am, back at the computer!

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[Author]

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