I’m fairly good at managing my time in a professional setting and when I have a list of things that really need to be done, but I feel like I’m really bad at managing my free time. So many people I know have time to watch all sorts of shows, read all sorts of books, listen to all sorts of podcasts, and play all sorts of video games in their free time, and I have no idea how they manage it. I almost never watch TV - Sam and I are watching the new Drive to Survive, but it’s going slowly. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t finished a book since last summer. I’ve been playing a lot more video games in the last half year or so, but it takes a long time to get through a single game. At least I’m getting more time to listen to music, which is nice - my work no longer requires listening 100% of the the time so I can often put on background music, and I have a 25-minute commute during which I can listen to stuff that requires more concentration, like podcasts - but the idea of starting a new one that will take me forever to catch up on is daunting. A lot of people I know even take on side work projects, and I recently turned down one that I was really interested in because I thought it would stress me out too much.
There are definitely a few reasons I can identify that are contributing to the feeling I don’t get anything done in my free time:
I AM fairly busy - I have class once a week, rehearsal once a week, and I have homework associated with the former and practice associated with the latter. I play trivia every other week, I run the social media for Countermeasure, and usually have a number of other commitments in the space of a week.
I’m a completionist - I like to finish one game/show/book before I start the next, and the current game I’m playing is a long one. I feel like maybe a lot of people who seem to play a wide variety of video games jump from game to game without necessarily finishing them first. Same with TV shows, I’d rather finish one before starting a new one, and if a show is more than a few seasons long it really factors against choosing to watch it.
I don’t get to spend as much time with Sam as I would like, so if, say, HE’S playing video games, I’d rather sit beside him on the couch and work on homework or something rather than go into another room and read or do something on my own.
This is probably the biggest reason - I spend too much time on my phone. I play a lot of silly phone games and scroll through social media. I’m reluctant to call it WASTING time, because I find it relaxing and a good way to rest my brain a bit after a work day, but it certainly doesn’t feel productive. I’ve thought about this a bit, and for awhile I was thinking that I don’t NEED to feel productive in my free time and if something is relaxing, that’s good; but presumably if I cut back on my aimless phone usage, whatever I fill my time with will likely feel more rewarding.
However, that being said, I still can’t see myself freeing up the kind of time it would take to binge watch a TV show or catch up on a podcast that’s hundreds of episodes long. How do people do it?