6 Time wasters and how to avoid them

If you love life don’t waste time, because time is what life is made of -Benjamin Franklin

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This is something almost every one of us know. We know we are wasting life when we waste time. Despite the fact we waste time. Waste of time has only two parts, the part that we cannot control and the part we can control.

Let’s keep aside the part we cannot control and move to the part we can control. There are numerous ways we waste time. We waste time in plenty of things that it is hard to list everything. But there are time wasters that takes most of the precious time from us. For instance, an average human spend 2.5 years of the life grooming. We can reduce such things to get more time for other important things. So here is the list of 6 major things that waste your time

Checking the phone

The honour of distracting us first goes to our mobile phones. Checking emails very often, checking social media very often, taking selfie for no reason etc. These are all things we do subconsciously. For every notification pop up we are tempted to check what’s in there new.

There we have the villain. Notifications. Turn them off and you’ll find that you’ll miss nothing much and you’ll gain much more.

Also, this includes calling/ texting a friend just because you are bored. You’ll convince yourself that the chat will be short just for a short break despite knowing the fact that it will last for at least an hour.

Action step: Install a device usage tracker on your phone. If you use computers/laptops very often install in those devices too.

On day one just check how much time you spend on each app. From the day two, set an limit just below the time you use.

For example, if you use Instagram for 2 hours set the limit to one and a half hour. Repeat this to all the less important apps every day till they are reduced to 30 minutes, or even less if you can.

Not saying no

Yes, you can say no. In fact you have to say no.

It’s only by saying no, you can concentrate on things that are really important. -Steve Jobs

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Trying to please everyone you’ll end up irritating yourself. Of course, you can’t say no rudely to anyone. But there are ways to say no convincingly.

If someone is asking you to help them with something try saying “I would love to do that, but I am sorry, I’ll have to finish this today.”

Action step: Add positivity to the sentence before the no part comes to refuse politely

Multitasking

If you are a regular multitasker you’ll know there are two different types of multitasking

• Cognitive task + Cognitive task
• Non cognitive task + Non cognitive task

The one to avoid is cognitive + cognitive. Any task that requires you to mentally process, retrieve, recall information is cognitive task. You should not be watching television while doing homework. But you can watch television while folding laundry.

Action step: Write a list everything you have to do and you want to do. Starting from finishing the most important project to playing games. Sort them into cognitive and non cognitive, match them up.

This is the only way you can do things you want and also manage things you have to do.

Being disorganized

Organizing not simply means having a clean desk and shelf. Your desk can be a clutter and still you can be organized. Organized is when you know where you have to look for something, what you have to do next etc.

For instance, if you have a project to be finished in one hour, you can’t keep searching references for half an hour. You should be able to grab them immediately and work. That’s what is called organized work.

It should be comfortable for you. That is the only thing that matters. You can keep the books in your desk drawer if that is where you feel comfortable.

Also, have a list of what you should do. It shouldn’t be like I was thinking what I should do for the past one hour, now that I know what to do, I don’t have enough time.

Action step: Look around your work/study place. Look at things you have to do Rearrange things in your room accordingly by keeping things you won’t need far away and essentials at the reach of hand.

Doing everything yourself

Know when to ask help. Doing everything will only become counter-productive. Delegate certain tasks to others

You can delegate,

• When it is urgent but not very important.
• When it is not your area of expertise
• When the tasks is stressing or overwhelming you
• When the task is small now, but will add up if it waits for longer.

For instance, if you are a blogger and you want your blog to have unique photos and not stock photos. If you are not good at taking, editing and designing photos, it may take you several hours to finish the project. Instead ask someone who is expert in that area to help you out on it.

Also, automate whenever possible. I usually write 2 to 3 blog posts together on a weekend and schedule them. So that I can have time for my other work. You can also schedule social media, computer backups. I also use proofreading tools to check my blog post instead of rereading everything by myself. All these things help me get more time to myself.

Waiting for perfection

Well this is used as a key tool in procrastination by many of us. “What’s the time? 4:17 eh? I’ll start at 4:30. Oh no it’s 4:34! Never mind, I’ll start at 5.”

I don’t know about you, but this used to happen very often to me.

Waiting for things to get perfect will only waste time. If it is not now, it is never. It’s okay if you start the project at 4:17.
And the same way, expecting too much perfection in the outcome will only waste your time. You could write an email to a friend at work like,

Hi XYZ,
I just wanted to catch up with the progress of (whatever we are doing). Can we meet in (the coffee shop in the corner of the street)?
Cheers,
ZYX

If you guys know each other well, this is going to be okay. But if you expect perfection you’ll end up thinking “Isn’t “Hi” a little informal? Should I be writing Cheers? Shouldn’t it be Yours truly? But wouldn’t Yours truly feel too much formal?”
And you’ll end up rewriting the same two line for the next half an hour.

Action step: Remind yourself that it’s okay if the time isn’t perfect. You can start working. Also, don’t stress yourself that the outcome is not perfectly perfect

Summary

1. Checking your phone very often
2. Not saying no
3. Multitasking
4. Not being organized
5. Doing everything yourself
6. Waiting for perfection

What else do you think wastes your time? Let me know in the comments below ♡