It’s so easy to waste time. Look at all the temptations! TV, Netflix, Facebook, email, computer games, movies, parties, magazines… What’s your poison?

Distractions can be fun and have social elements to them, but are they the best use of your time?

It’s hard to hold the line, once and for all because your time demands and needs change. For me, the #1 reason to not do an activity is if I lose energy even thinking about it.

But some things you still gotta do. For instance, TV is a big energy drain for me and when my kids were little, the TV mostly stayed off. But when the girls became teenagers and stayed up later than I did, I lost the TV battle to all sorts of cable shows, like Hot or Not. And Big Brother. And Real Housewives of… wherever.

In a family, social way, it’s good I gave in. When my girls were in high school, there were social norms to knowing about and watching certain shows. And on the rare occasions that I sat down and watched TV with them, my girls LOVED that I gave in and thrilled at filling me in on the weirdest, trashiest stuff.

Now that they’re both out of the house, I miss them like crazy. I like that they felt they could bend me in this odd way. And I’m quite happy to never see another episode of Hot or Not.

I gave in and loved it. And now TV is back on my “No, thanks” list.

When I’m torn about partaking, I remind myself of this simple phrase from organizational guru David Allen: “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.” This reminds me to focus, to stick to the work I feel most drawn to, and to think about whether the activity is the most important thing for me to be doing at that moment. If it is, I’m all in. I’ve made my choice. If it’s not, then it’s nice to have “No thanks,” in my pocket, and to choose a higher energy path.

Sending you the peace and love of a chocolate Lab on a red beach. Happy Monday!