> Ironically, jobs are actually easier to enjoy than free time, because like flow activities they have built-in goals, feedback rules, and challenges, all of which encourage one to become involved in one’s work, to concentrate and lose oneself in it. Free time, on the other hand, is unstructured, and requires much greater effort to be shaped into something that can be enjoyed – [Flow](https://amzn.to/33y559H)

At least a few nights a week I end up scrolling mindlessly through some sort of consumption. Often it’s YouTube and StarCraft II videos, which aren’t bad necessarily but do leave me feeling a bit empty and dazed sometimes. Even worse is when I end up on Instagram scrolling through the browse feature.

It seems that no matter how often I tell Instagram I don’t want to look at women in posed sexually it figures I’m male and must want to look at them. No matter how many times I flag the photos, I’m only a few weeks away from the same content.

When I get sucked into Instagram I feel empty in a way that no other activity leaves me feeling drained. I look up and hours have passed and while I can’t say I hated the time, I feel like some piece of my soul was captured.

One thing I’ve asked myself a few times as I work on my time blocking course is…”Should I be time blocking my recreation time?” I’ve wanted so say yes, but didn’t have a good reason which meant I wasn’t sure I’d be able to advise you do it in my course.

> If you want to find out about my time blocking course when it comes out, [subscribe to the email list](https://curtismchale.ca/subscribe). You can also see it being developed on [Patreon](https://patreon.com/curtismchale).

Clearly the above quote from Flow lends weight to the argument about time blocking your leisure activities. Unfortunately I found that quote in Deep Work which means I’m going to have to read Flow before I’m ready to build out the script for my course.

Over the next few weeks I’ll start time blocking my recreation in the evenings and see if I lose pieces of my soul with my activities or get to keep those valuable pieces of myself.

## I Shipped

On Monday I showed you how to export a [vCard from your iPad](https://curtismchale.ca/2020/09/14/exporting-vcards-from-your-ipad). Apple doesn’t make it easy, but it is possible.

Wednesday I took a look at how [KeepIt stacks up as a note app](https://curtismchale.ca/2020/09/16/keep-it-quick-look). It’s probably the best option if you’re iOS only and don’t have a deep investment in another tool already.

Today I reviewed a book that makes a compelling case for education after the start of high school being all about showing how much you’ll conform to the norms of society. [The Case Against Education](https://curtismchale.ca/2020/09/18/the-case-against-education-by-bryan-caplan) makes me wonder even more about the value of College/University, especially in light of how expensive it is for so many and the weight of debt they have to carry for…the rest of their lives.

Over at Nexcess I wrote a post about adding [custom email triggers to AutomateWoo](https://blog.nexcess.net/adding-custom-triggers-to-automatewoo/).