Lifehack.org has an article up about energy sinkholes, things that sap time and energy away from the important stuff. This adapts and relates to all things, even art. I took a look at the sinkholes and which of them keep me out of my studio and it was interesting to think that I subscribe or do so many of them. I like to think of myself as an intelligent person but looking at the stark list of these sinkholes I had to think to myself how could I do them and not even realize it?

• So my list of sinkholes is as follows:
  • Email/IM/checking blogs/stats
  • TV/movies/Youtube/tivo
  • Excessive work

So my list is pretty basic. These are all things that I do that keep my out of the studio. I have see how scheduling things for my “free” time has given me some freedom as to the chains that kept me shackled to my computer all night. For instance this blog is written mostly on Sundays and some early AM’s before work. I wrote everything up and use typepad’s nifty post scheduler to put my posts out on a schedule. Rather than doing what I used to do for the other blog- either type it up in a word doc and cut and paste it in or put it in and save as a draft and then hope to remember to post it later.

One of the other sinkholes that I’ve been trying to cut back on is TV. With the fall season of shows out all my favorites are on so I’ve been using our DVR to it’s fullest. I record the shows that I like, skip those I don’t and watch only the show itself and skip all the ads. A 1 hour show really now only lasts 40 minutes. I’ve also been trying to cut back on the amount of shows that I watch, but with a lot of new shows out that I like I’m having a hard time with that. So my solution is that on Sunday when I do my blogging to multitask and bring my laptop into the living room and blog on the couch. At least that way I’m combining 2 time sinks into one.

So now that I’m thinking about how I’m killing my free time I’m more aware of it.