time management

I've had a nasty cold for about a week now - it seemed like it was getting better on Saturday and Sunday, and I actually got out of the house those days, but yesterday and today it has taken a nasty turn. I'm living on 12-hour sudafed, ibuprofen, and nyquil.

Whenever I'm stuck at home with a cold for long stretches, I always feel justified in being a little lazy. You have to rest, after all, in order to get better. So I end up watching a lot of tv and movies and such. I've probably seen more tv in the last week than in an entire month. I'm just that way - I don't really turn on the tv because it's such a passive activity. Even though I waste hours at a time at the computer (more interactive I guess) I always feel tv is more of a waste. I even forget to watch shows that I like. But as I said, I've been watching this week. The more you watch, the more you want to watch, it seems. I saw Project Runway for the first time last night, and of course, now I want to know how it's all going to turn out. I saw a few episodes of my favorite animated shows - Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad, King of the Hill, and watched some Malcolm in the Middle waiting for those other shows to start. I also caught The Daily Show and The Colbert Report last night. I could easily watch each of these shows every time they're on. I didn't catch any South Park, but I wish I had. On top of all that, I have 183 movies in queue on netflix - even if I watch two of those a week, which is highly unlikely, it would take me nearly two years to get through them all - assuming I don't add more and more movies to the queue, which I add to continually.

Yesterday I got a book in the mail that I had ordered from half.com - 28 Barbary Lane - which contains Armistead Maupin's first three Tales of the City novels. I've already read them, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, but I was recently in San Francisco, and now want to re-read them. But I'm still finishing two books of short stories, and earlier this summer, started Don Quixote, which I think will be rewarding if I can find the discipline to hunker down and read it.

Everything I've mentioned so far are leisure activities. Sure, not all of it is mindless entertainment - some of it is art and will enrich my life and understanding of the world. Even pure entertainment is necessary once in a while, for a little 'down time'. But I then find I'm not practicing enough piano, not getting to the gym as often as I should (alright, I've been sick, so I haven't felt like it), not investigating ways of bettering my carreer or financial situation, not cleaning the apartment. It's so easy to avoid those things that take real mental and/or physical effort because of the overwhelming availability of leisure activities. (If tv can be called an 'activity'...)

So how much of my non-work time do I spend 'working' at these things? Do I need to make a schedule? Only allow certain time slots for internet or tv? It would be an interesting task just to see how much more productive I can be if I plan my time better. I think it might also help me feel like I'm not sitting on my ass, wasting my life!

Now I'm off to work.