Passive activities like watching TV, browsing the net without a specific objective come with two costs.
One is the time lost during the activity itself.
The other is the cost of having forgone something valuable that you could have done in that period.
I'd add that a third cost is in terms of lost thoughts and ideas. Passive activities rarely lead to insights or breakthrough ideas or simply common sense and to-do ideas. The latter most commonly come to me during chores. like cleaning and cooking.
I suspect that the mental daze brought on by passive activities lasts beyond the actual duration of the activity. It takes 10-15 minutes of a kind of buffering period after such activities to become focused on productive work again.
So the damage is far more than just that half hour of twitter or hulu.
Here's a long-term advantage of accounting for opportunity costs.
One is the time lost during the activity itself.
The other is the cost of having forgone something valuable that you could have done in that period.
I'd add that a third cost is in terms of lost thoughts and ideas. Passive activities rarely lead to insights or breakthrough ideas or simply common sense and to-do ideas. The latter most commonly come to me during chores. like cleaning and cooking.
I suspect that the mental daze brought on by passive activities lasts beyond the actual duration of the activity. It takes 10-15 minutes of a kind of buffering period after such activities to become focused on productive work again.
So the damage is far more than just that half hour of twitter or hulu.
Here's a long-term advantage of accounting for opportunity costs.
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Your thoughts are very welcome and I look forward to them eagerly. Just be mindful of being civil. This is a good book about the same in case you are interested:
Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct - P.M.Forni