Things to do/read when I want to goof off or an bored that would actually be productive without being painful
So when I’m tired, either physically or emotionally, I find that I tend to seek easy distractions. It reminds me of vegging out to whatever was on “the tube” back when TVs were actually tubes and you had to watch “what was on.” Except now it tends to be FaceBook or Instagram. Not that there’s anything wrong with social media, but I’d rather do it on purpose, not because I’m too decision-fatigued to come up with something better to do.
A lot of the time, when I quit swiping through whatever app it is, I regret that instead of goofing off, I didn’t do something just as easy, but more enriching, like go through articles I’ve bookmarked to read later, or read up on some of the tips and tricks linked from my favorite podcast. Call it goofing on. Sometimes the only reason I didn’t is that I would have had to decide on something and then find it.
So this page is my equivalent of setting out my running shoes the night before – something you do when the motivation and will are high, that reduces the barrier for me when I know it will be low. Give some of these a try if you want, and let me know if you have any top links/resources/activities you’d add!
In the vein of tinyhabits.com and coach.me (formerly LiftApp), the habit I’m trying to build is:
When I want to play a game, check FB, etc., I open this list first.
The list of Goof Ons:
Things to do when I have no energy at all (these are listed first for a reason!)
- Check my calendar
- Look at the family photo stream
- Check Safari reading list
- Check Kindle and/or iBooks for non-fiction I might feel like reading a page from
- Read show notes from favorite episodes of The Tim Ferriss Show
Things to do when I’m frustrated and need to do something else for a minute
- DuoLingo
- Process email (either business or personal)
- Think of one thing I’ve learned from the most recent thing I’ve read and put one or more action items in my calendar that will help me put it into practice.
- read Four Hour Chef
- do one push-up – 5 sec. down and 5 sec. up
- do one L pull-up
- do one air squat
- Check FB saved links (don’t do this when I’m too fatigued, I’ll open FB and get stuck on the news feed)
Goofing off