We want to spend our day productively and get more done, but unknowingly we do so many things that waste our time.
In this post, I have made a list of all the things that waste our time that you need to get rid of asap if you want to be more efficient and if you want to become a person who knows the value of time.
In this age we’re living in, time is money.
And in fact, the money we might lose can be earned back in doubles and hundred folds, but time lost can never come back.
Know the value of time
Table of Contents
The sooner we understand the value of our time the better our life will be.
The life we are living right now is a direct reflection of how we have used our time in the past.
If you’re not quite happy with the way your life has turned out in the present, assess how you have made use of your time in the past.
Did you make use of your free time learning new things, improving your skills, reading, and cultivating better habits?
Or did you just spend worrying, overthinking, spending time partying and engaging in mindless consumption?
However you might have spent, the time that’s gone is gone.
What matters is the present.
You still don’t require a great past to have a great future.
If you want to change your life and change your future, focus entirely on how you are using your time in the present.
Are you still carrying on the same past toxic habits or are you trying to change?
If you’re still doing the same time-wasting habits, but expecting different results from your life in the future, then know that it’s not going to work that way.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
If you want life to be good to you, be good to your time first.
You need to show respect for the time given to you, and slowly life will start trusting you and good things will come to you.
My life has changed drastically in just a few years all because I started to value my time and got rid of toxic time-wasting habits.
I no longer feel bored and value my time more than anything. I am cautious about my bad habits and have gotten rid of most of my time-wasting habits.
But the question firstly is,
Why do we waste our time?
We all know that time is precious, but still, we end up wasting our time.
So it can be safely said that simply knowing time is precious is not enough.
As much as you think that you’re lazy, you need help with procrastinating or that you don’t have enough willpower, the reason why we waste our time all comes down to these three things:
Top reasons why we waste our time
1. We don’t know what to do with our time
Most of the time we don’t know what to do and so we end up wasting it.
When we don’t know what to do, the easiest thing we know we can do is just to check our phones, watch tv, watch the news or watch Netflix.
If you want to stop wasting your time, get clear on what you want to do and make a to-do list that is visible and in front of your eyes.
If you’re bored, here are things to when you’re bored
P.S also check how to spend your me-time meaningfully
2. We think we still have time
Another critical reason why we waste time is that we think we still have but. But the truth is we don’t.
Soon enough our entire life will get over waiting for life to be perfect until we start valuing our time.
Stop waiting for life to get together to start valuing and utilising your time properly. The fact is because we haven’t valued our time properly, our life is still a mess.
Start valuing your time and your life will get together.
3. Engaging in time-wasting habits
The third reason why we waste our time is because of all the time-wasting habits we unconsciously engage in all through the day.
In this post, I bring up a list of all the time-wasting habits and all the things that waste our time during the day
Eliminating these things from our life can greatly help us save more time and have more time in our life.
20+ Things that waste time during the day
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1. Checking phone every minute
This is something we are all guilty of. And the number one reason is that we keep the notifications from social media on and keep it forever logged in.
To stop myself from checking social media, especially Instagram and Facebook, I always keep the notifications turned off and always keep them logged out after using them.
If I find myself using it a lot, then I uninstall it altogether and keep my phone somewhere far away from me.
A good habit to keep is to use social media only in a specific time period in your day and when you’re using, do nothing else like watching tv, talking to others, eating etc.
2. Checking phone first thing in the morning
This is one of the biggest toxic habits we have and I am so glad I got rid of it.
Getting rid of it saved me so much time and energy in the morning and I then could start my own proper healthy morning routine.
Checking our phone in the morning wastes a good half an hour to one hour and after that, we lose all focus, intention and our entire day goes wasted because we didn’t start our day on a good note
This is the biggest time waster and you will thank yourself by getting rid of it.
P.S toxic morning habits to cut off
3. Complaining
Complaining is a time waster and energy sucker. You get nothing out of complaining other than just draining your mood and energy and also draining other people’s energy around you.
Get rid of this complaining habit that is wasting so much time in your day that could have been spent being and feeling grateful for all other things that are good in your life.
If you want to stop complaining and start being grateful, take my 21-day gratitude challenge.
4. Not getting good sleep
When we don’t get a good sleep we end up wasting our time in the day because we don’t have the right state of mind and we’re so tired on work on things.
I find myself not having the energy to work on things that are important to me when I have not gotten a good sleep. That is why I make sure that I have a good sleep first of all.
5. Not planning things ahead
Not planning things ahead wastes our time because a good chunk of our time goes into deciding what needs to be done.
Plan in advance to save time. Here are something you can plan beforehand to save time:
- Plan your to-do
- Meal planning
- Planning your outfits for work
- Planning your day
- Planning your meetings
6. Planning too much
As much as not planning wastes our time, planning too much and caring too much about each and every detail also wastes our time and ends up being the biggest reason for procrastinating.
So plan your day, but don’t try to plan too much and let it be a reason for wasting your time.
7. Gossiping
Gossiping is such a waste of time.
I think people gossip because they have no other thing to talk about and so talking about other people becomes a good way to pass time.
And also gossiping feels satisfying and fun. It took me a lot of awareness and the intention to live meaningfully to get rid of gossiping.
To get rid of this time-wasting habit, try to notice the sources from where the gossip is coming. Are they your friends? Are they chat groups?
Are they your colleagues? Are they some podcasts- like celebrity gossip news?
Notice from where they’re coming and slowly try not to engage in the gossip they bring into your life.
Also, notice your urges whenever you have the urge to gossip when you’re with someone.
We can live our life without gossip and not feel like we’re missing out on anything interesting.
And if you truly want to make your life interesting, I’ve done an entire episode on how to make our life interesting.
Listen to my podcast episode here:
8. Too much Tv/ Netflix
On average, 55% of Americans spend one to four hours daily watching TV, and 22% watch four or more hours every day. Yet people complain that they don’t have any time to spend on themselves and for their personal growth.
If you have time to watch tv and binge-watch series on Netflix, then you also have time to read, journal, and make time for your hobbies.
Challenge yourself to go 21 days without watching tv or Netflix and do your meaningful work.
9. Too many phone calls
In this day and age, when we have no time for ourselves and others, it’s good to get connected and call our loved ones just to check on them and know how they are.
But I also know many people who can’t spend a minute alone by themselves.
I have an aunt who will always find someone to call just for the sake of talking because she just can’t stay quiet by herself.
She calls people one after another all through her day and keeps talking about useless stuff and gossiping about other people.
That’s an extreme case, but if you find yourself calling people too much then you need to get rid of this time waster.
10. Too much news
We can get by without gossiping and we can also get by easily without watching the news.
Too much news brings negativity, mistrust and fear into our subconscious.
Most of us are also unknowingly addicted to watching the news, most of the time, which is also totally crap news.
Get rid of the need to know everything and instead live your life wonderfully in the present.
11. Online shopping
Yes, online shopping is such a time waster.
I found myself scrolling through apps even when I didn’t need to buy anything and found myself ordering them just because they were so enticing.
Every time I checked online shopping apps, some good hours would get wasted and along with that my money.
Good that I have now deleted those shopping apps and installed them only when I am planning to buy something.
This has not only saved me time, but also simplified my life greatly.
12. Checking emails all through the day
Quit checking your emails all through the day and not following up on them.
Instead, block a specific time in your day for checking emails and then following up on them.
Unsubscribe from subscriptions that you don’t need and don’t read emails all through the day letting it spill over to other tasks.
13. Multi-tasking
When we are overwhelmed, we try to multitask, but multitasking is a big time waster.
As much as we think that we are trying to save time by doing two or three tasks at a time, we waste much more time.
As humans, it is impossible to do two things and focus on both of them well.
As a result, our energy and focus get divided and none of the tasks gets completed properly, or get completed after we are burned out, or takes a much longer time.
Get rid of the multitasking habit and do your tasks one at a time no matter how much overwhelmed you feel.
Tackle them one by one and get rid of the urge to multitask.
14. Not being organized
Do you go about your day searching for where that thing is because you didn’t keep it in its proper place?
When things are unorganised, we end up wasting so much time just searching for them.
Get rid of this habit and keep your things organised once and for all.
Here is a beginner’s guide on how to get your life organised.
Once you’ve organized your belongings, always keep your things back to where they belong. This saves so much time and energy.
15. Not investing in things that save your time
Most of us spend our money on all the things that we don’t need, but find it hard to give away money for things we need or things that can help us save time.
We think that we can do them by ourselves, so why waste money?
But you should know that spending money on things that save you time is not spending, but investing.
Invest money on things that save you your time and energy, and things that can make your daily life easier whether it be some electronic device, or some courses to help you learn something instead of spending so much time surfing on the internet for quick hacks.
16. Not delegating tasks
Wanting to do everything all by ourselves which could have easily been delegated to someone else also wastes our time.
If you can delegate certain tasks, then get into the habit of delegating them.
Trust others more in how they approach the task and let them learn. You will save both your time and energy.
17. Not time batching tasks
Blocking time or time batching means scheduling specific books of time to do the tasks that are similar in nature instead of spilling it all through your day and hence wasting time.
For example, you can create a time block for when you will follow up on emails instead of answering them whenever they come.
Doing things without batching them wastes a lot of time in the day which can easily be avoided by time batching them.
18. Being forgetful
Similar to being unorganised, being forgetful also wastes our time.
We are forgetful because we have stopped paying attention to what we are doing in the present moment.
When we are forgetful we have to do double the work by checking once again and this wastes time.
For this, we need to practice mindfulness and learn to live in the present moment.
Mindfulness is simply knowing what we are doing when we are doing it. In simple words, it is knowing we are walking, when we are walking, and knowing we are sitting when we are sitting.
As simple as this sounds, it’s a lifelong practice, but it does help us in getting rid of unnecessary waste of time.
19. Saying Yes when you could have said no
Stop saying yes to things you want to say no to. They not only waste your time but also leaves you feeling annoyed and angry.
So save yourself from this and learn to say no.
20. Too many meetings
Whether you are an employer or a worker, too many meetings to be more productive is actually what makes one unproductive.
What time which could have been spent working on something, gets spent on meetings that end without any proper conclusion.
If you want to do meetings, make sure that your meeting has specific agenda and that you find out what specific plan of action you have to take.
P.S Here are some tips to avoid too many meetings
21. Trying to be too perfect
I have stopped rooting for perfectionism and this has saved me so much time.
Trying to be too perfect and trying to do everything perfectly stressing over every minute detail also wastes our time and energy.
Sometimes we need to be happy with our good enough to get things done.
It’s slowly that our good enough gets transformed into very good.
Don’t try to reach for perfection and burn yourself out as a result, not to mention the amount of time that gets wasted just for some minor glitches that nobody would notice but you.
22. Being Angry
When we’re angry and annoyed we don’t feel like doing anything. We end up going about our day in a sulky mood and our entire day goes wasted.
Being angry is such a waste of time because nothing fruitful ever comes out of it.
Things can and will be resolved if we want to, but our day that got ruined by being angry and all the time that got wasted will never come back.
Be grateful and happy. You’ll be much more enthusiastic to spend your time well.
So this was it.
All the things that waste time in our day.
Save for later.
Top time-wasting habits summed up
Save for later
1. Checking phone every minute
2. Checking phone first thing in the morning
3. Complaining
4. Not getting good sleep
5. Not planning things ahead
6. Planning too much
7. Gossiping
8. Too much Tv/Netflix
9. Too many phone calls
10. Too much news
11. Online shopping
12. Checking emails all through the day
13. Multi-tasking
14. Not being organized
15. Not spending money on things that save your time
16. Not delegating tasks
17. Not time batching tasks
18. Being forgetful
19. Saying yes, when you could have said no
20. Too many meetings
21. Trying to be perfect
22. Being Angry
Get rid of these time-wasting habits and you will live a much smoother, easier and more productive day.
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