Anne, you spend a lot less time on here than I do, if that makes you feel better, LOL!
I initially got addicted to YLF during a period of time when I had something going on in my life. I was on leave from work for several months and had a lot of free time to kill. It was either come here and distract myself, or sit around and fret and worry, or worse, surf and read up on information that would make me even more worried.
I never talked about it here, because I wanted a place to go where nobody knew what was going on and everyone treated me normally instead of walking around on eggshells, if that makes sense? YLF was a wonderful distraction and it helped me get through a very challenging time.
That situation is improved and I'm working again (actually just had my busiest two quarters), but I still find ample time for YLF.
However, my kids are teens which makes a big difference. For one thing, they are old enough to take a big load off the chores - they do their own laundry, empty the dishwasher, etc. You'll see me posting frequently on the weekends that we're basically stuck in the house, all the chores are done, and the kids have friends over so we must make ourselves scarce while also occasionally wandering in to discreetly check up on them. Or we aren't at liberty to go anywhere because we are waiting around to pick up/drop off somebody. On weekends when the kids are at their dad's, you may still see me here on and off, because my DH really likes to catch up on his sleep. (That man can NAP! I've never been able to nap.)
During the week, I still post frequently because I work from home. My hours are all over the map. A typical day may find me on a call with Europe early in the morning, then with the west coast from noon until 6 pm, then back on calls again as late as 9 pm with asia. That's a long day!
I often start my day here because typing replies wakes my brain up and helps me think straight so I can then tackle my other work (I do a lot of writing, planning, strategy, budgeting, etc). So if my early-morning posts seem halfway incoherent, now you know why.
Like Nicole, I leave my browser open to YLF all day long, and when I need a few minutes break, or a listen-only conference call is boring me to death, I pop in and out again. Yesterday, all my meetings were cancelled - everyone wanted to watch the inauguration. We're also at the end of our quarter and things are winding down for the next, so it's slow.
I work at home - and yet, I'm a huge extrovert who derives energy from socializing and being around people. Having worked at home for nearly 5 years now, I have learned to get my socialization kick from forums such as these.
On the plus side, my experiences with internet forums have paid off in my work life, as I'm now our team's resident expert on social media. That's not all I do, but about 50% of my job is web marketing. I actually get paid to play on sites like facebook!! So fun!
Upshot: I find I'm more productive, not less, when I participate in forums and other social networking sites. I think this is because I'm an extrovert. I find it energizes me. And often helps me reach a personal goal - such as losing weight, quitting smoking, and upgrading my wardrobe. And I learn things that end up - surprisingly! - being applicable to my job.
With that said, from time to time, I force myself to unplug from my computer completely. For example, this weekend even though it snowed and we were stuck in the house for two days, I unplugged my computer completely and read a 1000 page novel from cover to cover. Oddly, I felt very lazy and like a total slacker doing that!
P.s. I second the recommendation for flylady! And there are some wonderful flylady support groups on yahoo....
