5 tips to getting rid of unproductive obsessions

“The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam,” said the agricultural ministry official of Japan. What does this have to do with pimping anyone’s work? Well, if you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ve probably heard by now that some Japanese bureaucrat spent his working hours making 260 contributions of Gundam-related entries to Wikipedia. Replace Gundam with Star Trek, stamp-collecting, sex -whatever your obsession is – and you’re probably just a couple of steps away from that Japanese bureaucrat. You’re letting your fun, albeit unproductive, obsessions get in the way of your life. I myself am that way sometimes (although I won’t mention which of the above obsessions are mine). To avoid falling off the obsession tree while hitting every branch on your way down, here are 5 tips you should take to heart:

Use your obsession as a reward. Instead of putting your obsession first, use it as a reward for accomplishing tasks. If you’ve got a tendency to get carried away by DVD marathons, schedule your DVD watching after your major tasks are done. That way, your obsession becomes healthy motivation to get the job done more quickly.

Set goals. Quitting something “cold turkey” is almost impossible. (Really, ask the turkeys.) Try reducing the time you spend on your obsession by a couple of hours each day. Then make it an hour each day, then an hour every other day – until you get to your goal. I’d say 3-4 hours a week is a good goal. If your obsession also costs you money other than time, you can apply the same principle.

Find other interests. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be replacing your current obsession with another – that would be defeating the purpose. The point is to gain many interests that you’ll want to spend equal amounts of time on each, rather than focusing on one. If you can find interests that are related to your work, or something you want to accomplish, then your formerly indulgent obsession-time will be productive and working towards something positive.

Eliminate things that remind you of your obsession. That Gundam-obsessed guy probably had his office littered with robots. Even if the Japanese government didn’t name him, I bet it was so obvious to his colleagues. If you’ve got little trinkets lying around that remind you of your obsession, put them away into a drawer. Or, if you’ve gotten too obsessed and your stuff won’t fit a drawer, you can put them away in a small cupboard or storeroom. If that’s still too small, some vast deserts in Africa are uninhabited. If all else fails, sell them on eBay. After all, you don’t really need a truckload of memorabilia.

Take a walk. Sometimes, you’ll be getting “withdrawal symptoms” as you’re following these steps. When you get the urge to spend excessive time on your obsession, you need to step out of your house (or cubicle) and go for a short walk. It’ll keep your mind off your obsession, especially since you’ll get to see what you’ve been missing staying cooped up at home. (Then again, if you live next to a garbage dump, this might not be a good idea.)