What do I do?

What do designers do when they are not doing their normal course of work?
Or do they anytime leave their normal course of work. I think being a designer, you have to work 24x7. Being observant all the time and looking for new ways to conceive and execute. That's what a designers day in a life is.
So here's is what I do when I'm not doing what is to be done ;-).

Surf internet. I do it a lot. Open up my blog, click on the links in inspiration section and there starts my voyage of discovering new things, in life and in market. I visit smashingmagazine and freelanceswitch a lot. Smashingmagazine gives pool of resource while freelanceswitch tells me how to use those resources in a productive way to get you some bucks. Apart from these I usually go through the portfolio websites of designers and programmers available on famous portfolio sites like coroflot. You get to know what others are doing outside so that you don't stay a pond's frog at the end of the day. The kind of work that is being done across the world and that you are doing gives you a comparative sense of where you need to excel and where you are good enough to showcase yourself.

I design. I take up just anything and try to analyze and see how it can be improved. Hmmm so that's kinda thinking job. But all that takes place in brain. Very few are taken down on paper.

[to be contd.]