An idea I've had in my head for the past week or two, mainly because I have several projects that I just keep "not getting around to".:
I think there is a difference between free time and idle time.
Free time is when you could be doing something that has been back-burnered, such as a project around the house, or getting together with friends.
Idle time is when there is nothing going on, but you are sort "on call" as it were (particularly in my case in the context of having young kids around). These are the times when you do lazy things like watch TV or surf the internet.
Most of productivity "hacking" is probably just making an effort to convert more "idle time" into "free time", which is easy in some ways, but non-trivial in others. I think the distinction between the two is very helpful in considering why people say they don't have any time, but still manage to find time to do all sort of unproductive things. If you are simply idle, it's partly because you fully expect that you could be called away to do something else at any moment. To have free time, you need to consciously block off that time from other obligations.
I think there is a difference between free time and idle time.
Free time is when you could be doing something that has been back-burnered, such as a project around the house, or getting together with friends.
Idle time is when there is nothing going on, but you are sort "on call" as it were (particularly in my case in the context of having young kids around). These are the times when you do lazy things like watch TV or surf the internet.
Most of productivity "hacking" is probably just making an effort to convert more "idle time" into "free time", which is easy in some ways, but non-trivial in others. I think the distinction between the two is very helpful in considering why people say they don't have any time, but still manage to find time to do all sort of unproductive things. If you are simply idle, it's partly because you fully expect that you could be called away to do something else at any moment. To have free time, you need to consciously block off that time from other obligations.