Did You Really Mean to Do That?

Today, I caught myself frittering away time in Cafe World on Facebook. For the uninitiated, it's a casual game in which you run a cafe and can recruit Facebook friends to help.

I cursed myself when I thought about the writing I could be doing with that time.

Dennis Prager, a radio host, once said that everyone should have to put the number of hours he spent watching TV on his gravestone. The thought was so striking, so horrific to me, that it actually changed my viewing habits pretty radically.

That notion could be extended, clearly, to any kind of frivolous, unplanned activity.

That's not to say that frivolity has no place. Of course we need time to vegetate, to play without serious obligation.

But the important question is, Is this what you'd actually prefer to do with these minutes?

How often do we claim to lack for time? And how much of that time is given away to unplanned--and often pointless--trivialities.

Are you forgoing valued pursuits in favor of easy, pointless diversion? For me, the answer is that too often I am. And it's time to change that.