If keeping your day job is the cake, then investing in yourself outside of your day job is at least the icing, or maybe even another four or five cakes' worth.
But if that sounds like way too much work, there's always the chance you can hit the jackpot by suing the entity that consumed most of your time for an obscene amount of money. That's what Craig Smallwood is doing to NCSoft, creator of Lineage II, a 3-D massively multi-player online role-playing game. Allegedly Mr. Smallwood spent 20,000 hours playing the game from 2004 to 2009, and is now suing NCSoft for damages under the guise that he wouldn't have started playing the game had he known that he would have become addicted to it.
First, let's break this down a little bit. How much time is twenty thousand hours? If we take the time span (generously) to be six full years (January 1st, 2004, to December 31st, 2009), 20,000 hours is over nine hours per day, seven days a week, 365 or 366 days per year, for six full years.
That's mind boggling, but not nearly as mind boggling as (a) his allegations that this stupendous waste of time wasn't his fault, (b) the fact that this lawsuit wasn't thrown out immediately, and, most importantly, (c) how far ahead he'd be now if he even played that game just five hours a day and invested the difference in himself. Five hours a day is still way too much time, but there's a whole lot someone can learn in about 9,000 hours. It's enough time to not only become proficient at, but completely master a skill, or maybe two skills!
What's the alternative to hoping for a misguided jackpot judgment like this guy is?
I'll let you in on a little secret. I have a very addictive personality. I've spent more than my fair share playing mindless games and surfing sites that I really shouldn't be surfing. The only thing that's really helped me battle the game sites and other junk was installing a content filter and having my wife be the only one who has the password to change the permissions and delete the surfing logs. Before, I could pretend like I wasn't spending all of this time, but now I can't.
What's even better is that the best one I've found is free: Blue Coat K9 Web Protection. In addition to categories aimed at protecting children from content related to violence, drugs, hate, adult content, etc., and categories that should be limited or controlled (chat sites, social networking, peer-to-peer, etc.), it also can filter a whole bunch of (potentially costly and/or damaging) time-waster categories: gambling, shopping, and games. In addition to the bad sites, I block the game sites. I know that how I spend my time is my own responsibility, and that I have to ask for help if I can't use it productively. Suing MiniClip.com for my lost productivity makes about as much sense as suing McDonald's for not telling me that I could burn my legs if I spilled their coffee on them while I was driving.
So, the main point is this: If something is eating up a lot of your time and affecting your finances and even your life, don't blame or sue someone else. Own up and get it out of your life. Get help if you can't do it yourself. Those who depend on you and love you will thank you.
What a ridiculous lawsuit. I think it’s indicative of our culture’s tendency of no one wanting to take responsibility for themselves. If people would do that, they could solve most of their own problems. I’d also like to add RescueTime to your suggestion. It’s a great Firefox extension for tracking how you waste time online.