It is easy to notice how and when we waste time on a large scale. We notice that we spent an hour on social media or that we watched TV for three hours. However, these aren’t the only ways we waste time. We waste time in dozens of ways each day.
Many of these time-wasters aren’t always obvious, but the time can really add up over the course of a day, a week, or a decade.
Don’t let your time just be frittered away! Imagine how much you could accomplish in that time! What could you do that really matters to you?
Guard your time from the micro timewasters with these strategies:
- Have a phone charger with you. How many times in a week do you need a phone charger and have to go into the other room to fetch it? Have multiple chargers and keep them handy in the locations you spend the most time.
- It’s not just the time it takes to get the charger. It’s the disruption to your thoughts and workflow. Plus, once you leave the room to locate your charger, who knows what else will grab your attention along the way.
- Internet speed. How much time do you spend waiting for a web page to load? Or a movie to stream? You might not think you’re waiting for very long, but it all adds up. If your internet is noticeably slow, your time is being wasted.
- Checking e-mail. It just takes 10 seconds to check email, right? Hardly. That quick look alters your concentration, and there’s no telling how far down the rabbit hole you’re going to go.
- You might open three emails, respond to one one them, and then remember that you have another email to answer.
- What if the email is a link to a video of a cat chasing a dog?
- There’s no telling when you’ll get back on track.
- Beverages. How many times do you get up from your desk to get a drink? However many times it is, it’s too many. Keep a beverage handy when you’re working. Take a sip and get back to work.
- Snacks. Keep something healthy available. If you have to go to the vending machine for a snack, you can’t be sure who you’ll run into or how long you’ll be gone.
- Get gas for your car on the weekend. You don’t want to be rushed on Tuesday morning and realize that your car needs gas on the way to work. Plan ahead.
- Meals. We spend a lot of time thinking about meals, planning meals, buying food, cleaning dishes. If you have to stop on the way to work for breakfast, go out for lunch, and then pick up something at the store for dinner, you’re wasting a lot of time.
- Go to the store once a week, at most.
- Have food that can be prepared quickly and easily and doesn’t require multiple pots and pans to prepare it.
- Looking for “lost” things. This could be your keys, purse, wallet, a pen, your shoes, jacket, umbrella, or anything else you’ve temporarily misplaced. Keep the essentials in a particular place.
- For example, don’t ever put your car keys anywhere but in the decorative bowl by the front door. Your pen should be on your desk. Your shoes should be where your shoes belong if they’re not on your feet.
After you’ve eliminated the big wasters of time in your life, start looking at the tiny wasters of time. You’ll quickly realize that the impact on your life isn’t so tiny.
Every disruption has a greater impact than just the amount of time the disruption robs from you. Consider the loss of focus and momentum. It takes time to get back on track mentally after you’ve scoured the house or your workplace for a pencil.
Guard your time with your life – the life you really desire!
What do you do to save time and not waste it? Leave a comment below.
You are in my life! Time wasters all — I find myself looking for things ALL THE TIME! It’s not always my fault. I have a 17-year-old who helps my time-wasting by moving things LOL.
Email is such a time suck too.
Thank you for reminding me of these things so I can try to pay more attention to them and maybe do better!
Sometimes I dont realize how much time these tasks accumulate. Sure it is only a minute or two here or there, but doing that each day (in some cases) it can all add up!
I’ve been researching today on how to work smarter and on saving time. Another way to save time is knowing when to stop looking for ways. I think I’m done that for today now.
LOL – yes! Don’t spend time looking for how to save time – I love it!
Paul, great pointers– especially about the time we waste searching. About the keys– a couple of years ago, I realized there’s a metal ring on either side of the top of my purses (except small evening bags). So now, the keys are always attached to one of those metal rings by a spring-loaded clip that cost about $1. My shoes and purses and laptop behave. My iPhone does not always behave, however, I have trained it to land in only one place in each room. This has saved massive energy. My days are not M-F, so I get gas whenever the needle goes below half-a-tank. Thanks for a great piece!
I’m glad you found our blogs helpful, Kebba!