If I were to drastically generalize and divide everything people do into just two categories, those categories would be (1) action and (2) distraction.
I would define action as anything that you do that benefits yourself or someone else in some way. That could be as simple as helping out a friend or even just brainstorming. It could also be as complicated as writing up a 500 page business plan or going on a vacation to regain energy and get a new perspective.
Then I would definite distraction as anything that takes your time with no benefit returned.
It sounds simple, and it is. Mostly. The tricky part is that everything is relative. You might say watching movies and playing video games are a distraction. Most of the time, yes they are, but sometimes a movie will inspire a budding filmmaker or a video game will inspire a designer. Conversely, you might think that replying to every email or reading countless blogs could be productive action when really they could be just substituting reading for action. Reading too much information could even end up making you forget useful information you already knew.
And here is the problem. Over the years, people are presented with more and more distraction, and leaving less room for action. What makes it the most difficult is that distraction is far easier than action. It’s a lot more fun to watch a movie than sit down and write ideas because a movie doesn’t usually require any thinking. The less you think and the more distraction you allow into your life, the easier it will probably be, but that’s not necessarily a good thing.
