Dead Time

"Dead time" is the time used to do something repetitive or tedious, such as showering, shaving, washing dishes, doing laundry, and even sleeping has a certain amount of tediousness to it. It's not actually dead time because something useful and important is getting done, but it feels like wasted time and tends to frustrate me.

Oddly enough, real dead time, like waiting in a line, doesn't bother me much because I can usually spend at least some of that time doing something interesting to me, like playing Lego Tower or reading a few pages of a novel on my Kindle e-reader. In fact, I welcome it because it's usually time I can have to myself without feeling guilty.

I try to make my dead time more interesting by having something to think about, or something to listen to like a podcast, but it's still time I'd rather be doing something else. I often find myself putting off these tasks as long as I can, to the point that I now have to set reminders to encourage me to get them done in a timely manner, which has led to a lot of notifications from my phone. The problem is, after a certain number of notifications I start ignoring them.

I admire people who can find interest or even joy in doing these daily tasks, and I have a desire to learn to do so myself, but so far I haven't been able to cultivate the right mindset.