How do you waste the most time every day?
If time is money, then I’m hemorrhaging cash at the speed of light—and the culprit? News!
Now, I want to preface this by saying I don’t consider most things a waste of time. Watching sunsets? Worth it! Eating pizza for breakfast? Worth it! Rearranging my sock drawer? Kinda-sorta worth it.
But if I had to pick one personal time-wasting vice to throw under the productivity bus… it’s the news. Sweet, sensational, soul-sapping news.
I am a news junkie—hardwired to crave every breaking headline, political scandal, economic spiral, and meteor about to annihilate us. Even as a kid, when my friends were watching cartoons, I was tuned into NBC Nightly News like a senior citizen, listening to Tom Brokaw drop gravitas bombs with that molasses-smooth voice.
“Good evening. The world is still spinning… but barely.” – Tom Brokaw
Okay, I kinda-sorta made up that quote… but anyway…
Fast forward to today: I wake up, reach for my phone, and before my feet hit the floor, I’ve already read three articles about why the economy is teetering, five on why the planet is melting, and at least one piece titled “Could a rogue octopus start World War III?”
Do I need to know this? Absolutely not!
Could I be doing something more productive—like writing, exercising, or finally learning how to make the perfect pizza? Yes, but no. I must first consume twelve more articles explaining why cheese prices are geopolitical now.
And don’t get me wrong—being informed is important. But there’s a fine line between being informed and doom-scrolling myself into a pit of existential dread that smells vaguely of coffee and procrastination.
Some people use meditation apps. I use Reuters, BBC, Fox News, and a wild mix of X threads. Nothing soothes the mind quite like a live stream of democracy on fire news reports.
So, yes—I’ll admit it. If I’ve wasted any time today, it was probably somewhere between the article about AI replacing my job, the one about AI creating jobs, and the one that says AI will become Skynet.
But at least I’m well-informed… and slightly stressed.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just got an alert: “BREAKING: Something happened somewhere, and experts are concerned.”
I’d better go waste some more time reading about it.
Crock’s Thoughts 