Too much computer time?

With all the work I've been doing setting up Central Ohio Binky Patrol, I feel like I've spent all my available time on this laptop!  Don't get me wrong, I love playing on my computer.  Plus I am thrilled with all the volunteers and donations that I've been able to gain from working on here.  The internet is an amazing tool to connect all of us!  Even as I type I am awaiting a big box from Crooked Brook full of their donation of fleece blankets.  I can't wait for it to get here!

But, with all this time spent online, I've been thinking that in general I just have way too much computer time.  I should be with my family more!  I should be sewing more!  I should be reading more!  I should be out in the yard more!  I should even be sleeping more - lol!  Instead, whenever I have a block of free time, the laptop is the first place I turn. 

The amount of available information is overwhelming!  From patterns, to tips, to blogs, to email lists.  I could easily sit all day and still not get everything read.  And that is just talking about quilting, what if I started research other interests, like gardening or books?  The problem is that I don't want to miss out on any of that great information.  I enjoy seeing what everyone is working on, I love finding new projects to attempt.  It's fun for me but it is stealing too much of my time.  So, I decided to start making some changes to try to get my computer time down to a more reasonable amount. 

For one thing, I unsubscribed from a lot of my yahoo email groups.  It seems as though I'm always behind on reading the messages anyway.  I stayed subscribed to a few that I really enjoy but got rid of the excess ones.  Also on the ones I stayed subscribed to, I deleted all the old messages that I hadn't gotten around to reading yet.  I figure that if it is an important topic it will be discussed again eventually.

Secondly, I decided to give Google Reader a try.  Do any of you use it?  I just got it all set up yesterday but it looks like something I'm going to like alot.  It's for reading blogs and websites that are often updated.  Usually what I would do when I wanted to read blogs was go through my "Blog List" here on my blog.  I'd click on each one and read their post.  That was fine but then I'd end up following links from their site and before I knew it I'd have lost an hour just on one blog.  With Google Reader, I can "subscribe" to as many blogs as I want and they will all show up in one place.  It keeps track of what posts I have or haven't read.  Also, the post itself shows up in Google Reader so I'm not tempted by all the additional links and so on.  I just love it!

Finally, and of course this is the hardest one, I have decided to try very hard to limit myself to only a predetermined amount of time on the computer.  I haven't come up with that amount of time yet because every number I think of just seems like it's too little!  See, I really do have a problem here!  LOL!

Bye,