Like most people these days I have a pseudo-addiction to various mindless activities. Over time I've managed to put a majority of these under my control all be it with occasional relapses. Unfortunately there still seems much work to be done, and I've not managed to consistently reach peak performance for some time. I had the strongest grip on this pseudo-addiction, my life's most productive months, when I could easily access a piano and decided I'd spend at least thirty minutes a day playing. In the beginning it felt like a chore, but as I got better it became a magnificent source of relief. Rather than mandating playing I would play as I desired, and I continued with greater frequency. During that time I achieved more than I ever had before, and more effectively than I have since, the piano acted as a catalyst to my other efforts.
Eventually I found myself in an environment without a piano, and without control sufficient to obtain a new one. I'm only just now realizing that the piano might have been similar to drug replacement therapy, an interactive intuitive institution to compel the mind enough so that it no longer needed those lesser pseudo-mindless activities. Perhaps I'll get a keyboard in a year, one that doesn't sound so poor as to take all the enjoyment from the activity. But until then what is available? What interactive intuitive institutions beyond the pseudo-mindless do you enjoy? Which of these can't be taken away, or lost? Interactive fiction, abstract strategy games, fiction proper, physical art, or portable instruments etc.
While my focus here is on relapse events, at this point the greatest waste of my time is entirely internal, a repetitive day dreaming. I suspect it's all the same however.