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the same time as the game, acknowledge that those other things are not getting your full attention, and count it as "time I spent playing a video game."

At the end of one week, you may find you spent as much time on World of Warcraft as you did working, and probably more time than you spent reading books, exercising, playing with your children, or hanging out with friends. Decide what's really important to you, and spend as much time on that activity as you do on your video games- eventually, you'll find your time in the game drops as you make room in your schedule for time with other people and other pursuits.

If you play these games because there's nothing else to do at 2 AM, and you're too braindead to do anything else, go to bed! The worst thing for an insomniac to do at the witching hour is to engage in an activity that constantly flashes at them and stimulates endorphins the way video games do. Take a warm cup of milk or tea and go lie down in bed. Put on some music if you're restless, but give your eyes a rest, even if you can't actually make it to dreamland.

Finally, do the "blog test." Write a blog post every day for a month, about things you did outside of work. The one rule: you can't talk about anything done inside a video game (yes, Second Life counts). At the end of the month, go look at your blog. Is there anything worth reading about? If not, ask yourself if this is who you really want to be, or if there isn't something more to who you are than a high score and a series of computer bits representing a magical sword. You might even find yourself going out and doing things, just so you'll have something to blog about!

Learn more about this author, Stephanie Bryant.
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