30 Day Blog Challenge Day 18: My Worst Habit

It's day 18 of my challenge! Almost 2/3 of the way to the end! Today's topic is another one that I struggle with because there are too many to choose from. I have lots of bad habits. Which one to choose as my worst? It's a poser. The vast majority fall under the broad heading of wasting time, though.

One bad habit I have is watching too much television. I've really worked on this lately and have succeeded in not turning it on when I get home from school. On those days, I really feel like I'm more productive. I read or write or grade papers--something that I would end up having to do eventually anyway, but when I do them as soon as I get home, I won't have to do them later in a big rush. I'm really working on doing appointment watching. There are a few shows I enjoy every week, and two series I'm trying to watch on Netflix, so my goal is to only turn on the TV when there's a specific show I want to watch rather than sit and surf through the channels for hours at a time. Key word being try. Success eludes me sometimes, but not all times.

Another is absently surfing the web. I go on for a specific reason and even tell myself that I'm doing things to help me be a better writer, like pinning things, or I'm increasing my online presence, like posting stuff on Facebook or Twitter, but the reality is that the time it takes to do all that legitimate stuff is minimal. Maybe a half hour at the outside. And yet, I occasionally find myself on there for hours at a time. There are things I can do online that are more conducive to actually helping myself become a better writer and/or sell more books, like reading author blogs and listening to podcasts on growing my tribe, but that's not what I'm doing.

I also tend to sit still too much. I'm inert. In addition to not exercising enough, I just spend too much time in my desk chair, either at work or home, or lying on my bed (see the too much TV thing to understand that). I need to go for more walks and lift more heavy things. And I really just need to be on my feet more. I feel certain my lack of movement is contributing greatly to my inability to lose weight despite the fact that I am eating less and what I am eating is more healthy than before.

So after writing all this, I've figured out that my worst habit is laziness. I am, to quote the great Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski, a lazy, lazy man. If I don't choose consciously to be active at something productive, I can go entire days without moving. Or if I do move, I do things that require little to no effort, mentally or physically. If I believed in former lives, I would be convinced I was a sloth at some point. But the fact that this is my tendency is not an excuse. I am not a sloth. I can choose to be more. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a walk. But not a very long one.