Exploring the entire SC2 starmap would probably make for an effective way to break up your workday. The drawback would be that you may find all the non-essential worlds to be incredibly boring. Occasionally you'll come across high-RU worlds (the highest of which are indicated in the Resourse Guide), but if you don't have to go there to finish the game, the programmers probably didn't spend more than a few seconds in creating the world or system. I guess if you're willing to put up with the occasional empty Super-Dense World, finding the occasional Treasure World will be worthwhile.
However, for those that don't already know where everything in the game is, exploring is indeed really cool. I remember that when I first played the game (and after I realized, at the hands of the Kohr-Ah, that I should save very often), I discovered a fair amount of stuff within range of Sol just by exploring myself, without getting tipped off first.
By the way, if you want more time, BUY MORE THRUSTERS. If I remember correctly, the first time I went through the game I ran out of time because I didn't improve the speed of my colony ship until late in the game. Buying more thrusters also allows you to dodge and outrun hostile ships that try to track you down in real space or hyperspace.
