Stop wasting your time!

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Are you one of those people that waste a lot of time?

Do you feel like you are losing control over it and need a little bit of help with getting back on track of your time?

My friend, I am here to help you…

But the first thing you need to do is to establish if you are wasting your time and that you know why you should stop it, so let me take you through it.

We all have times where we spend a bit too long scrolling down Facebook, Instagram, TikTik or whatever the social media platform you’re looking at.

We all like to just sit down watch a drama on the telly or just chill in the garden with a glass of Prosecco.

And it’s all fine as long as it relaxes you or gives some inspiration or motivation but…

You must have control over it.

Don’t just spend an endless amount of hours on your phone or sit all day watching telly/ playing games/ sleeping etc.

You must critically evaluate your day patterns and decided which one of the things you were doing were done for too long.

Were you on the phone for too long? You can check this on the smartphone if you have screen time watch activated.

Were you sitting on the sofa for too long? (no, sofa’s do not come with a Lay Time Watch installed … yet…)

Did you catch yourself sleeping too long? We do need sleep 7-8 hrs but if you notice you sleep 10hours, you have just spent two hours too many where you could utilise it efficiently.

It’s all about the balancing act.

But you might wonder why should you control it and even worry about it.

Well, let me take you through my point of views on this matter…

I am one Busy Bee and would love to have more time in a day.

I have a full-time office job Monday to Friday. I have 3 young kids and plenty of house chores. I am also blogging/promoting my blog whenever I find the time. And I work out 3-5 times a week.

And I envy those that do have time but decide to waste it.

Let me tell you one secret- I live with a procrastinator (sorry hubby- I hope you don’t mind me bringing this up here). My very own husband loves procrastinating.

I don’t know whether he loves it, but he just does.

He spends a lot of time on his phone (he used to play PS4 back in the days for hours).

And many times he says he’s going to do something and somewhat he ends up giving up on the idea. He has so many good ideas and interests, he just hardly ever pursues with them.

It kills me to watch it.

This became even more apparent now during the lockdown as he has pretty much no work due to the Covid19. So he schools our children daily and yes he managed to get a lot of work in the garden and the house done. He also helps in the house chores, yet I know he was planning on some other things that he never proceeded with.

So going back to the beginning, I envy the amount of spare time he has, and cannot understand why does he waste it. I feel sometimes like shouting to him:

Stop wasting your time!

But I cannot change him. I don’t even want to change him as this is who he is. He knows my view on it as I do mention it from time to time (he calls it Nagging) but I do not try to change the way he chooses to utilise his time.

This is one of the secrets of a happy relationship- Do not try to change your partner. You can read more about this in my previous:

18 secrets to a Happy and Healthy Marriage

I just don’t have much of the luxury of spare time and when I do end up having some I feel like I must utilise it well and in a meaningful way.

Why?

OK, let’s just roll with it…

7 reasons why and how you should stop wasting your time

1. Life is too short to waste your time

How long do we have to live? No one knows this… I wish I knew how many years I would live, at least I would know how long I have to tick all the items off my bucket list…

What is the average life span of a person living in the UK?

According to National Statistics in the UK it’s 79.2 years for males and 82.9 years for females.

So statistically I will live longer than the opposite sex, yet I might die tomorrow or next year. Who knows?

So why waste this precious and short time in life we have.

The older I get the more I appreciate every hour I have and are almost scared to just waste it away.

I want every day, every hour, and even every minute to count and to be meaningful.

When I cook- this is because I want my family to eat a healthy meal.

When I clean- this is because my house will look clean and I and my family will be happy to live in it.

When I work- this is because I will earn a salary to contribute to the family budget.

When I blog- this is because I will hopefully inspire or motivate somebody to achieve something in their life.

When I sleep- this is because my batteries need recharging, (but I don’t like to overcharge them either).

When I exercise- this is because my mind and body benefits and hopefully let me enjoy good health for longer.

Make every minute count, life is too short to waste your precious time…

 

2. You’re missing on the opportunities

 

Imagine you are sitting down on the sofa watching telly while scrolling down your Facebook page. What could you do otherwise that would potentially benefit your life?

You could do some freelance writing that could bring some more income.

You could start working on your blog (sorry, my personal goal here).

You could develop a plan for your online business.

You could read a book on self-development.

You could work out.

There are so many productive ways you could spend your time… Please head over to my previous post if you need a little inspiration on how to productively spend time.

30 Productive Ways to Spend a Lockdown Time

If you do not feel like doing any of the above…

Spend quality time with your loved ones and build those memories to cherish forever. Remember there are always some opportunities and you create your own future.

3. You get less done

An obvious point but must not be skipped.

If you waste time playing a game (or any other way)- nothing else gets done. And you will probably lose control of the time and forget about everything you needed to do.

This, in turn, can actually bring more pressure on you as the due things just pile up and eventually need to get done.

So I suggest- get things done first and at least complete all the tasks you wanted to complete before sitting down to play a game or watch telly.

The easy way to accomplish this is to have a To-Do List.

You might want to print one out of the internet, but I think the simple way is to just jot it down on a little diary or a piece of paper even. Or use smartphone Notes. I do and it’s the way it works best for me. However, everyone is different, and you might find other ways more efficient so try different ideas and see which one works best for you.

 

4. You get wrapped up in the procrastination bubble

I think it is easily done to just get in this bubble of “I can’t be bothered”, or “I’ll do it later”.

The thing is, our brain is trained that way.

If we feel the task might be a little difficult to do or requires a little bit of effort, we are programmed in the way to talk ourselves out of it.

Please watch this short video clip where Mel Robbins- the author of the book “5 Second Rule” talks about a 5-second rule (who would have thought :-)).

In a nutshell, if you don’t act on the idea within 5 seconds, your brain will talk you out of it and you will never get it done…

 

Perhaps after listening to this you can find inspiration and apply in your life. It might be a gamechanger…

 

5. You lose motivation

If you carry on just wasting your time over and over again, you end up getting lost in this wasteful way of living.

Let’s work with an example here… Imagine you have set yourself a goal to work out 5 times a week.

In the beginning, you stick to it and you are highly motivated (think New Year’s resolutions).

After 2 weeks something comes up and you miss one work out.

A week after you miss another workout.

Whatever your excuse was, if you carry on in this pattern, what is going to happen is that you are going to stop exercising altogether. Eventually, after one month you will be back to your old ways.

What can you do to keep this motivation going?

Well, I think this is big enough subject to cover in a separate post (coming up) so why not start with this:

-set yourself a goal that is achievable yet challenging

-self-discipline yourself

-reward yourself for the little achievements

-start slow and easy

-don’t be too hard on yourself

-keep track of it

I will be covering this in my next post in full.

 

6. You are killing your potential

If you have an idea in your head but find every excuse not to pursue it, you are literally killing your potential.

I don’t believe when people say- “I just am not smart enough” or “I don’t have time for it”.

If you even thought for a moment of an idea and got excited about it, there is a potential that you need to unleash!

Do not be scared.

Don’t worry about what people will say.

A worse thing can happen is that you will fail, but so what?

You have given it a go, and you have learned from it too. At least you have tried and if you really work hard for it and gave it a real go you will eventually succeed. If not the first time, or second then the third or fifth or tenth…

The most successful businessman has started several businesses and failed many times before succeeding.

Success is not built overnight. It takes determination, hard work, and a lot of self-discipline.

Next time you have this great idea in your head… Count to 5 (using the above 5 Second Rule), run to your laptop, notepad, or phone and write it down…

Then start planning how you are going to work on it.

Start your research and invest in some courses if you need more knowledge.

Nowadays everything can be learned from home. If you don’t want to pay for the courses, look for it online. YouTube has a topic covered in detail on every single area of knowledge you might want to gain. You just need to type it into a search bar and spend invest your time learning new skills. This is not going to be wasted time, as Knowledge is Power. 

 

7. You cannot buy the time so you cannot afford to waste it.

 

You must have heard this before:

As in my previous points explained, time brings you with the opportunities that if utilised well will bring you money.

Not only this…

You cannot buy the time.

Once it is gone, it’s gone forever…

So stop wasting your time!

 

Conclusion about how you should stop wasting your time

 

I hope the above 7 reasons why and how you should stop wasting your time was an eye-opener.

I am not trying to teach you how to live your life and if you want to waste your time, go ahead and do it.

This post was just to make you realise that Time is a precious commodity and once it’s gone it will never return.

We all have 24 hours in each day… It’s up to you how you want to utilise it…

Don’t get me wrong- I am not perfect. I do procrastinate sometimes and go on my phone daily but I try to catch myself and stop whenever I realise I’m doing it. And it does not last forever, yet I am aware it adds up to a few hours a week (according to my Screentime watch).

You are the creator of your own life and you run it however you want to, but you need to be comfortable with it and be sure you will have no regrets when you are old and retired and think back: Why did I waste so much time when I was younger, I could have done this and that but instead I was procrastinating or wasting my time doing unmeaningful things…

Live life to the fullest- Stop wasting your time.

Do you catch yourself wasting too much time on your phone or doing unmeaningful things? Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.

 

Thank you so much for reading