Work, Pseudowork and fun

Todays entry will be boring but I figured out something that helped me out a bit, so maybe it'll help you too. I'm a little happier today because I decided to make some clearer distinctions between fun and work. When I was young, everything was either work or play. Studying and homework were work. Watching television and playing dodgeball were play. It was very clear and we were very happy. Or at least we knew when we were happy. Nowadays, with us trying to make work and learning fun for the next generation, everything is a little muddled and I have a theory that this makes kids miserable. They're just going through life with a vague feeling like they might have done an honest days work or they might have been goofing off the whole time.

My daily routine falls into three categories right now -  fun, work and peudowork. Pseudowork is kind of an in between grey area - stuff that I do to fool myself into thinking I'm making progress in life but I'm really just doing it to avoid doing work.

So here's my list:
Fun: Playing mobile/computer games, watching Youtube videos, watching Netflix/movies, chatting with friends.

Pseudowork: Exercise, watching/studying comedy videos and shows, Duolingo, Guitar practice, write my blog.

Work: Write jokes, clean my house, read email.

Some of the items could be moved around. Like reading emails could be pseudowork but because it is so mindnumbingly boring, I put it in under work. Watching Youtube videos used to be pseudowork but today, I decided it should be fun and that made me more productive and happier. Now, if I am not having fun watching a video, I'll either switch to another video or stop watching. I won't make myself watch some home made documentary about the Timurid Empire for 4 hours, just because it's easier to do that and call it work (or pseudowork) than writing jokes or cleaning the house or sorting through my mail.

Maybe I shouldn't even have a pseudowork category and just move everything out of there into either fun or work. Seems a bit much though - doing 5 push-ups and calling it work. But definitely something to think about.

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