Wow, Drawing Can Actually Sometimes Be a Distraction

This is one of my sketches (sorry for the blurriness). Drawing characters
or potential characters is both fun and useful!

    Lots of writers love to draw, and love to find ways to use this gift to contribute to their writing. I'm one of them, and while I'm definitely no Picasso, drawing characters, outfits, gadgets, and settings is helpful and extremely satisfying! It's added some flavor to the stories they're based on, and given ideas for new writing pieces.
    But I've noticed that sometimes when I'm drawing, it's not for a story. And it's not a setting, character, or object that's found in my usual genres. It's not something I'd likely ever use in writing, and as I sketch it, I'm not even learning a new strategy for drawing. I'm just sketching because the subject looks nice; an entirely recreational act. That's not a bad thing, but when I could--and should--be using that time for writing, homework, or other important responsibilities . . . well, it would seem that in this situation, drawing is a serious distraction. A distraction made even more dangerous in the fact that it's easy to justify as "creative work."
    It makes one wonder--if drawing (a creative, constructive practice) can have a detrimental affect, what other activities can easily be distractions? What other artistic skill has to be used with caution?
    Maybe that's the wrong way to look at it though. The fact that drawing could become a distraction definitely doesn't mean that it always is. The problem of distraction seems to lie in a matter of context, of whether or not something else needs to be focused on instead. If a person has one hour to do anything, and they're already really good at painting, but they could use some practice with writing descriptions, spending the hour writing descriptions would probably be the more efficient choice. Whereas if the person with one free hour is horrible at painting, and wants to practice, painting would possibly be the better option.
    Of course, these are just opinions. What do you think? Have you ever had to reluctantly put off drawing (or another artistic practice) in order to focus on writing?