“If time is of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.” ― Benjamin Franklin
Track Your Time
The first step to stop wasting time is to figure out exactly how much time you’re wasting and what you’re wasting it on. Darius Fourroux, an entrepreneur and writer about productivity, recommends keeping track for at least two weeks to see how you spend your time. You can use an old-fashioned pen and paper or time-management software like clocks. Me, which makes this way more accessible. Whatever you feel comfortable with is fine, as long as you commit to accurately accounting for your time.
Then, once you know what and where your time-wasters are, you can make an effort to cut them out.
Make A Plan
The biggest time waste is not having any kind of plan for the day or week. We just drift through the day reacting to anything that comes our way and not making any progress toward our goals or purpose.
We watch the news, let politicians anger us, and then get involved in political debates with people we don’t know who do not share our views. These ‘discussions’ disturb us, cause our negative emotions to rise, and leave us feeling angry and empty.
Once you’ve figured out how much time you waste and how long your tasks take, you can make a schedule of what needs to get done. Sounds basic, right? Well, not really.
Be Aware Of “Time Suckers”
Being aware of where your ‘time suckers’, are the first step to making the most of your available time. Starting with the basics, we should be doing work that inspires us. If your current job does not inspire you, investing some time in finding a vocation that does inspire you would be a good use of your time.
Watching how much time you are spending on social media is another area to be aware of. Are you spending too much time scrolling through your social media feeds? If so, perhaps you should be limiting the amount of time you spend there each day.
Take Breaks Research suggests that breaks help improve energy, motivation, and mood. There’s also evidence that short breaks can help you feel focused on the task at hand. Think of short breaks as a reset for your brain after it spends time focusing on one task.
You can take breaks in whatever ways work best for you, though you’ll need to figure out what that is. Some people might realize they need a break when they’ve been staring at the same sentence for five minutes. For other people, structured breaks might work better.
One popular way to structure your breaks is the Pomodoro method. To try this method, set a timer for 25 minutes and spend that time focusing on one task. When the timer goes off, take a five-minute break. Then repeat. You can try different lengths of work time to see what makes you most productive.
Final Thoughts
The truth is we do not have a lot of time. Human life is relatively short and wasting time on online distractions, getting involved in meaningless discussions about things we have no control over, and drifting through our days with no plan or objective is like withdrawing $100 from your bank account each day, and throwing it away in the garbage can.
You can’t afford to do that and you can’t afford to throw away those precious hours we are given every day. You will never get them back.
So, from now on, become aware of how you are spending your days, avoid meaningless discussions about things you have no control over; start the day with a plan – self-education, exercise, relationship building; move towards a proactive state rather than being stuck in a reactive state; and be aware of how limited your time is.
You must be logged in to post a comment.