Like anyone else, I have a list of books/games/shows etc. that I want to experience. But it's too easy to fall into the trap of watching, reading, or playing something just to check it off the list rather than for the actual enjoyment of it.

I tend to set aside time each day to read, and I'll feel "bad" if I don't get around to it. There are times it really feels like homework and obviously it's not good when your hobby starts to feel like a job. At the same time, there are many books that I really enjoyed that I likely would have never gotten into if I didn't "force" myself into starting them. The same goes for many of my other hobbies such as foreign languages or writing. At the start of the pandemic I temporarily fell out of the habit of reading on a consistent basis and the number of books I read that year plummeted significantly and I missed out on a lot of potentially great books this way. I also find that if I don't force myself to some degree to do these things then I'll just end up wasting a lot of time surfing the Internet and feel dissatisfied. How do you strike a balance?