Where Do You Most Waste Your Time?
I can’t sing for toffee.
Or for anything else. I’m tone deaf and scare wolves away with my high pitched notes.
Even the shower turns itself off when I start belting out ‘When September Comes’ by Green Day.
So, I don’t bother and leave it to the professionals. It’s one thing I know I’ll never be any good at unlike all the wannabe warblers who enter the X Factor convinced they are the next big thing when they clearly can’t hit a single note.
Why waste my time? I’m no singer and are never likely to be.
It’s so obvious I avoid it but there are plenty of other things and ways I, like all of us, waste my time continually chasing when I should give them up as a bad thing. Some physical, some emotional, plenty mentally.
My wasted time
I’m only human and here’s some ways I’ve wasted my time over the years (see if you can recognise any from your life).
- Pursuing a relationship with a would be lover who never wanted to get serious
- Working for myself and throwing money at a job that wasn’t going to go anywhere
- Trying to please lots of people from family to friends at my own expense emotionally
- Planning building my dream life and taking my eye off my everyday one
- Buying gadgets and nice clothes, attending social events, and taking trips just to impress others
- Investing in family members who just aren’t interested in me
- Living in a location I no longer enjoy and complain about it rather than ever investigate anywhere else
To be honest I could go on and on filling up page after page with my wasted efforts. It’s like I never seemed to learn anything. Hence I’m back single again, having to get extra work, curtailing spending, and dying to move somewhere new. But it’s taken over a decade to heed the wake up call to these facts.
It’s only when it hurts that you pay attention.
Where’s your waste?
Quite frankly, I’d allowed too much dead wood into my life. I had drifted into wasted efforts on wasted situations and the constant non-results and dead ends finally acted as a wake up call. When one night brought yet another fruitless attempt to make love happen I decided, ‘No more, that’s it’.
Too much pain and too little content had gone too far. I got real and got ruthless…with myself. ‘If it’s not going anywhere, it’s going out’, became my new principle.
So far, so good, and positive change is in the air.
But it’s your turn. Where do you most waste your time?
- What activities or situations are draining you and not supporting you?
- What thinking or emotions are getting you nowhere?
- Who do you continue to give to again and again to while all you get back is disinterest or are taken for granted?
- Is there a job you so long to have yet you haven’t got a cat in hells chance of winning or aren’t really capable of doing?
- Where are you staying when you should be going?
The clock of life
When you were born you had a clock over your head slowly ticking down until your time on Earth is over. Nobody knows when that time is up and the clock stops.
Time is precious. Life is precious.
So, it’s best not to waste a single day or any of your priceless time.
Your life is waiting, your happiness with it. Know where you most waste your time and invest in your best in it’s place.
Don’t end up down the waste chute of life, shoot the waste instead!
Where have you wasted your time and wish you hadn’t? What are you currently wasting time on? Share your thoughts or stories on wasting time and getting it back.
Image courtesy of Jeff the Trojan.
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hey John
thanks for the post
while i am extremely disciplined in time management still i waste a lot of time sleeping
i just fail to wake up early, hopefully one day i will do it
Well waking up and smelling the coffee is tougher when you’re in bed but, hey, you’re not stressing about life either. A weird kind of win-win Farouk!
What a great principle to live your life by… if it’s not going anywhere, it’s going out!
I have loads of things I waste time with – I call them distractions. I always mean to minimise or eliminate them, but from time to time, I find myself absorbed in them! It’s great to check in with someone who isn’t afraid to tell it to you how it is… if you don’t have a friend or group like that it can be really hard not to buy all your own bs!
Great post, thanks, Dan.
You’re right on there Dan – we all need a wing man to watch our back….and our blind spot!
I read lots of blog posts by people who seem to spend more time planning than enjoying the present. For me, however, I waste lots of time wondering what to do next that will take me to another level.
I’m trying to learn to live five minutes at a time — and to move a little closer to my goals every five minutes of every day. As long as you’re moving, you’re making progress. Movement of some kind is a better indicator of progress than setting a goal but taking no action.
Gip
Like your take Gip and I’ve been where you are far too often I can tell you. The more we think the more have things to think about. Take life as it comes and trust your instincts – it’s what animals do and they have far less stress than us.
Hey John,
When what I’m doing really doesn’t support what I want out of life. I have to constantly check in with myself to see if I’m on track and my activities align with my goals. And of course when you identify “wasted time” activities having the courage to do something about it. I did an inventory and assessment of relationships (business and personal ) and decided that many were dysfunctional, negative and non productive. Many had to be terminated or redefined (i.e. seeing someone less frequently). It wasn’t easy but long term it freed up time for better quality relationships.
Riley
You’ve decluttered the dead wood Riley so know you can go with your own flow as the way ahead isn’t so blocked. Good job! Now watch how life moves in response….
Hi John,
Interesting post. Especially considering I was just having a conversation with my brother about this very subject, wasting time. He shared that he wishes he did’t waste time doing [blank] and I asked if it was really a waste. I probed out the number of lessons that he learned from doing [blank]. And he said it was one of his most valuable life-learning-experiences ever. If we were to rewind time, prior to our conversation he would have erased that part of his life, but after us really talking about the path he took, and what it lead it – he wouldn’t go back and change a thing.
I realize this post is much more broad than that my example – but the time was so close I had to share that.
I’ve cut down so many things out of my life that ware wastes, but I think I cut out too much, like things I really enjoy doing. I’ve played my Playstation 3 one-time this year. I love playing that thing. I still buy all the games I like – I just haven’t put myself to playing it because I’ve been working on so much…things that I’m trying to accomplish. But I’m starting to realize that I have to make time for things that I enjoy, even though they counter my productivity. But I have to let these in to let my mind break from the work.
I know I rambled a lot here…John – but through it I was able to really hash out a couple of items I’ve had on my mind. thank you!
Just wanted to comment on the game playing…I LOVE playing console games and find it to be a very effective means of relieving stress, getting out of my own head when I am stuck in circular thinking, and gives the “other side” of my brain a chance to problem solve in the background while I am busy being a resident bad a-s bringing the pain, vaporizing the enemy, in the Playstation games I love to play. LOL!
Plus I just like using all the cool weaponry to kill creatures/enemies/aliens..but we’ll keep that under our hats.
Virtual fun Stephanie. At least I know who to turn to if the Martians ever do invade!!
LOL!! As long as I have some nuclear molecular sigmoid diddywhop that can liquify alien/zombie/mutant flesh, I’m the woman for the job!! hahhaha!
Err…that should be SIGMA diddywhop NOT sigmoid!! oops!
I’m sure if the aliens come to call I can get my hands on some. Keep practising in the meantime Stephanie!
As far as the time suck….I have had more than my fair share of exerting time and energy into losing situations, thinking that if I just give that much more I can finally see some positive results…
There are times when enough is enough…
I had been wandering thru life, the past 10 YEARS or so, repeating the same behavior with different (the same) people, in different cities…the commonality being, of course, me. I take me with me wherever I go, and not until I FINALLY woke up to the fact that I have a right to want what I want and to stop doing something if it doesn’t work for me and to pursue that which I want, did life start to change.
I am very cognizant of when I waste time, because it is closely aligned to feelings of boredom, which, for me, arises when I start to have the “what is the point of it all” feelings because I am not seeing forward progress or worse…I start looking at the progress other people are making and then make comparisons, which is NEVER a good idea.
Life is indeed short and we will die, but more importantly, I think we ALL have awesome potential that would just be a shame to waste doing things that make us feel inert and less than amazingly alive.
Thanks for the reminder, I really enjoy reading your blog.
Have an AWESOME day!
Love your insights Stephanie and your honest appraisal of your life – you can now progress as you’ve got real and dealt with your shorter comings. And what a fab quote to finish, “we all have awesome potential that would just be a shame to waste doing things that make us feel inert and less than amazingly alive”. Amazing itself that! Come back soon Stephanie with more.
To quote a now disgraced Austrian…
“I’ll be back!!!”
LOL!!
You could join together as super Martian busting team!
I can relate to this Post so MUCH! Really, because I work at a 9-5 job and every-time i’m there I FEEL Like I’m wasting my TIME. So lately I been using my time at Work to get REAL WORK DONE, such as writing, networking, etc.
Well it pays the bills but you’re wisely also planning world writing domination in the background Jonathan and that’s the real key. I won’t have to get James Bond to sort you out will I?
I continuously waste time thinking about a career in the beer testing industry, yet I am deathly allergic to both hops and wheat. Indeed John, it is so important to spend your time in places that will propel you forward not backwards! Great Stuff.
-Adam
Or with beer downwards towards the floor Adam. But you’re spot on – you have to move towards your greater good or otherwise you don’t grow and it all turns slow. Good luck with the beer job!
hello john
how are you?
you cant sing hmmh!! that makes two of us lol!!
anyway back to the post.
after reading this i can recount a lot of ways i wasted my time.
i wasted my time on a relationship that was heading nowhere
i wasted my time trying to be a people pleaser with the aim of being loved and accepted by others for what they wanted instead of who i am.
i wasted my time having unrealistic dreams
i wasted my time in the company of certain friends.
the list is endless:
you are quite right time is precious and right now i am only focusing on things that would give my life more meaning
take care and enjoy the rest of the day
It’s amazing isn’t it Ayo? – we can admit where we’ve wasted our time and it makes us no less a person. In fact it makes up much stronger and more alive and ready to celebrate life even more. Go to the party my friend!
John,
Don’t be too hard on yourself! I believe we are all right where we are suppose to be. On line and off!
It’s this thought that stands out for me.
Investing in family members who just aren’t interested in me
I think I did that for the first 34 years of my life and with/ family and friends as well.
Now my question is am I doing it in the online community? Who really cares about me. I’m not saying that in an insecure way but in a “let’s get real” way. Great post and if a lesson is learned is that time money space ever wasted?
I’m a big fan of the ‘get real and deal’ philosophy Tess. Take responsibility and get real with what needs to be done. Then no more time will be wasted or invested where it shouldn’t. Truth hurts, but it’s still the truth.