I know that feeling.

Just stop paying attention and stop caring about anything and you'll eventually find something to waste time on. If you have anything interesting enough to hold your interest for enough time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overchoice
Maybe knowing this will help you... somehow.

>>8147
I would be surprised if this was true for any of us. For one none of us have much disposible income. For 2 we've all made our choice, and it's 2D.

>>8147
It isn't the same as OP isn't trying to gain anything but get rid of excess time. That only applies when there is something positive to gain.

>>8149
Time is the currency and free media is the thing to chose from. I'd guess.

>have trouble making optimal choices, and thus as a result can be indecisive, unhappy, and even refrain from making the choice (purchase) at all

Set a schedule
Every day, at nine, wake up and study a subject, math or science for example.
Do this for an hour, then move on to another subject to study for an hour.
Take a walk when your done, and get outside, come back, and force yourself to read for an hour, a book, any book.

You've now studied for two hours, gotten an hour of exercise, and are reading around two books a month.

Thats four productive hours a day, and it makes it easier to do something with the other 20 hours, believe it or not.

Worked wonders for me.

I know that feel. I dick around so much that I can blast through an entire day doing absolutely nothing.

Then I get to 9PM and want to watch a movie and realise it's too late to start one, and get pissed off at how I did literally nothing that day and now I've run out of time.

>>8216
Sounds like every day of my life.

>>8164 is on to something.
Personally, I make daily to-do lists, and end up doing most points on them... and still feel useless.

>>8216

Most of the time I say I'm going to just quickly browse the internet to check something, then I end up doing other things until I realize that several hours have passed.

In my case 9PM actually ends up being 3-4AM in the morning...Then my sleeping cycle just gets fucked up for days.

Try making a schedule.

I am fairly certain I have an internet addiction. I found myself in a situation (and still do) where I spend all of my time refreshing imageboards and not actually doing much of the shit that I'm on the imageboards to post or read about in the first place.

So what I did was plan out how my free time was going to be spent. It can feel confining, and spontaneity is a good thing, but I think to initially break the habit it's good to plan for when and how you're going to do that.

You need to find a hobby OP. Try making ships in a bottle or something.

>>8219
Well at least I don't have that problem. I look and feel like shit when I go to bed too late and it gets in the way of going to the gym (only time I ever leave the house) so I never go to bed past ten.

I don't like the idea of filling up my time with activities that I'm only doing to fill time. And on the other hand I hate having nothing to do and browsing chans all day. I've started developing nervous facial twitches because I'm always feeling pressured and anxious, like I'm supposed to be doing something important, even when I have nothing to do.

I feel like I'm wasting time by posting on imageboards or watching movies and I should be doing something better, which makes me really anxious and I can't finish posting or watching a movie because of that anxiety. I end up switching between them every five minutes and get even more anxious. It's a horrible cycle.

Does anyone even know how I feel or am I just insane?

>>8341
I know how you feel, sort of. Sometimes when I'm playing a game (especially re-playing something I've already) or watching something that's not interesting I'll get this anxious "I shouldn't be doing this" feeling. Somehow even browsing the internet creates less of that feeling.

>>8341

I know that feel, but whenever I try to branch out and do something like... learning a new language or working out, I just give up really quickly. I just can't stick to it.

>>8341
Yeah, I know exactly how you feel. I can easily waste away a day idling on IRC or browsing imageboards, and I feel the most satisfied when I do this, because it best takes my mind off the stuff that I should actually be doing or that I feel I should be doing. If I tried to actually do something of value though, like learn something, I'll lose focus and wish I could be whiling away my time again. All this really means is that I need to force myself to spend at least some time in the day doing something useful, and then maybe I can waste my time in peace.

>>8341
I know that too somewhat. But then I tell myself "if I really wanted to do the other thing then I'd do it". And suddenly it's cool to waste my time on IRC because it's nice. And sometimes (rarely) I actually do the other thing.

>>8341

Yes, I get that aswell. It's like I'm figthing a war against time and losing.

But the problem is that I don't really know what it is that I SHOULD be doing.

I have that awful niggling feeling like I'm wasting my life away on the chans, but I don't know what it is that I should do that wouldn't be a waste of my life. It's like that choice overload thing.

And the thoughbt of doing something that i SHOULD be doing makes me feel anxious. Like I don't really want to face up to the difficult things that I need to do to progress in life.

I've spent three years telling myself that i was going to learn moon, never got around to it, prabably never will.

It's like I'm just too slow, or distracted, or both. Sometimes I go to the kitchen to make some tea and realize just a little more than 20 minutes have passed when I'm back, and I don't know what I did for it to take so long. And then it extends to looking at the clock at the end of the day and not being able to recall what I did with considerable chunks of time between some activities, and still, it's the end of the day and I haven't done half of the shit I intended to.
Setting a schedule hasn't helpped much. Sitting for a period of time to do something isn't a problem, now coming up with something relevant after such period, that is hell.
As a matter of fact, it took me a little over one hour just to come up with this small text, and it's pretty shitty.

See I'm usually in the opposite situation than OP, time goes by too slow and sometimes I'll even actually get up and do something in the kitchen just to pass time by faster instead of sitting on here all day refreshing my favorite sites hoping every minute won't become so slow it feels like an hour.

>>8723
Yeah, I know that feeling.

The main problem for me is that we don't have any classes around here, and teaching yourself is not the best method for me (I need teachers to help me out sometimes)

It sucks because I memorized all the kana back in may and after that... my steam... just ran out.

Post edited on 1st Feb 2012, 1:25pm

>>8723

>>8723
I said I was going to learn how to make electronic music for years and years. I bought a DAW and a MIDI keyboard, and I haven't really touched them. I think we need to actually enjoy the struggle to do something. The way I think, I just want to make one continuous moment of effort and be done with it. It's not really a feasible way to think in this life.

>>8765
I'm the opposite , nearly everything I've learn was self taught, problem is I only learn things when there is a pressure and desperation for me to learn them, like trying not to fail a class.

>>8723
I think I'm the master at this. I tried to develop an interest in many things just to find some sense in my meaningless life. My room is like an historic of all of my "wanted" but non-existent passions.
I have dictionaries for various foreign languages I've never studied, I have mythology books, philosophy, science, anime (I'm not even in anime, I forced myself to watch some to try to develop a passion but nothing came out of it), I have video games I've never played for more than 20 minutes, a graphic tablet almost untouched, a USB jostick bought after lurking for a week fighting games related stuff, etc.

>>8899
You sound exactly like me. The best analogy I can make is video game levelling - there's nothing I hate more than not being able to just level to an endpoint and then fight, rather than continually take potions to buff my skills above usual to win fights. It's like fuck, I just want to get that shit over with so I can enjoy the game.

I don't think that makes any sense but I wanted you to know I understand.

>>9116
You're... also exactly like me. Do you find that you look at things and think "yeah it would be pretty cool to be able to do that" but it never actually seems worth the effort once you start? I hear people talking about a strong, pushing 'drive' to learn or do something and I can't relate. Everything is just 'yeah sort of cool I guess' to me.