You spend your day doing unnecessary activities.
Then, you wish you could have that time back.
We are all guilty of this at some point.
Where are you going to waste time today?
Where Is Your Time Wasted?
We all have the same amount of time in the day.
It all comes down to how your chose to spend yours.
Avoiding time-wasting activities can make all the difference.
What frivolous and silly ways do you waste time during your day?
Here are 29 Ways You’re Wasting Time Today:
- Complaining. No one gets what they want by whining. Instead, try asking.
- Commuting during rush hour. Time-shift your drive for less traffic.
- Gossiping. It never gets the work done.
- Doing other people’s work. Do your work first.
- Watching TV. No one ever accomplished their goals by sitting on the couch.
- Hanging out with negative people. Be careful, attitude is contagious.
- Procrastinating. Action now always beats inaction.
- Indecision. Make decisions or life will make them for you.
- Reading the news. Go on a media diet.
- Antagonizing others. If you don’t have something nice to say…
- Playing video games. Angry Birds doesn’t get work done. Neither does Words with Friends.
- Eating junk food. Do something active and get your body in motion.
- Making empty promises. Stop saying what you’re not going to do.
- Waiting for something to happen. Go out and make it happen.
- Attending unnecessary meetings. Practice the “Right to Decline” unneeded meetings.
- Reading Email. Only check it 3 times a day. Morning, noon, end of day.
- Answering the phone. Remember, your phone is there for your convenience.
- Playing Email Ping-Pong. Avoid the back-and-forth, go talk to someone.
- Not putting things away. You’ll have to look for them later.
- Surfing the web endlessly. One thing leads to another…
- Constantly updating your social media status. No one needs to know what you are eating for lunch.
- Not capturing ideas. Where did you write down that million dollar idea?
- Fighting with others. Agree to disagree, but skip the fight.
- Reading the tabloids. Do you need to know which celeb got arrested this week?
- Looking for things you misplaced. Make sure you have a place for your stuff.
- Letting email notifications interrupt your day. Turn off those pop-ups!
- Piling instead of filing. Piles are not organization.
- Not looking at your todo list. You wrote that task down, but you didn’t look at your list.
- Solving the same problems, again. Make sure you document solutions so you have them down the road.
What Shouldn’t You Do Today?
Sometimes it’s not what you do, but what you stop doing.
Protect your day from these time-wasters.
You just might have a little more time in your day.
Question: Where do you catch yourself wasting time?
Angry Birds is a huge waste of time. Words with Friends, on the other hand, is brain exercise. 😉 Okay, okay. Back to work.
My biggest problem is getting ready to do something instead of starting to do something. That and Angry birds 🙂
Darn, those Angry Birds! Especially, the Star Wars variety…
Sifting through blogs, especially when I should be working on my own. This one was worth it though 🙂
Thx, Chris. 😉
This is such a thorough list! I certainly agree with #25 – looking for things takes up too much time if you aren’t organized! Even if you just make places for those things you use often (keys, mobile phone, handbag, etc) at least you’ll save time by not having to hunt them down every other day. And good point with #29 – don’t keep repeating the same mistakes, create systems so that in the future you don’t run into the same problems 🙂
Agreed, when you are constantly looking for the same items or solving the same problems… it is time to look at why…
Oh ya
I would say that #28 “Not looking at your todo list” could also easily be “just looking at your todo list”…action paralysis can often result if you have an unwieldy and poorly organised list. Staring at it isn’t going to make it any smaller!
Great point. You have to take action. 🙂
I’d add checking your blog statistics…but maybe that is just me! I am a big fan of #18…get up and go talk to someone!
Good one… this is a big one for bloggers.
Whatever you do, don’t download the iOS App “Ego.” 😉
Isnt this an official requirement? 🙂
What about shopping whether in the mall or online? Most of the time we’re buying stuff we don’t need and then we do buy something we’ve spent too long comparing prices, specs, colors, or whatever else rather than just getting the first item that meets our needs within budget.
All and all, a powerful list. Not being a slave to email is revolutionary (#16); I need to work on this. One I’d add that’s a cousin to complaining and and likes to hang out with procrastinating is WORRYING. A real time sucker…
Absolutely, 99% of the things we worrying about… never happen. 😉
I’m SO guilty of a few of these. But these days, I’ve turned to using a timer app that SPEAKS when my time is up, lol!!
I would not consider watching the news a waste of time.
Here are my thoughts…
http://timemanagementninja.com/2012/11/10-reasons-you-should-stop-checking-the-news/
No really it is a fully time waste as it never ended…
Great list, Craig. I am guilty of nearly all of these at times… I think I will print this out and review it nightly for a week. Ask if I was guilty of any of these. Which ones the most… knock one off with a permanent solution… Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.
if everyone lived by you number 17 answering your phone then having a phone would be pointless as noone would ever answer any calls :
Answer when it makes sense, for all other times… there’s voicemail.
Your phone can only interrupt your life if you let it. 🙂
Indecision. Make decisions or life will make them for you.
-and we all know how life can be so “unfair”
i’ve got another, reading a lot of comments on posts! you don’t need to read them all (guilty of this one while scrolling down the comments)
i mean, we know how life can be so “cruel”
Agreed. 🙂
I got to your article by going through my Twitter feed, which one might call surfing. I learn a lot this way. In specific contexts, some bad things are good.
Agreed!
I think that would fit into #5 here… 🙂
http://timemanagementninja.com/2013/01/7-ways-social-media-can-make-you-more-productive/
Online games, especially Facebook games consume most of our useful time.
This is a good list! I know I’ve been distracted by several of these things. It’s something many of us need to work on.
Thx, Brittany. 🙂
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Moving papers, files, pens around numerous times. If I put it where it goes, the problem does not happen. Im a vet tech so I naturally have numerous rooms….. that I walk in and out of for no reason, Ill open the drawers in there too to check for stock but I put no more in the drawer. I have questions about a form but do not want to bother anybody so I stand there and try to figure it out…… for about 30 mins.
Quite good advices but I need a last piece of advice… I dream too much, think too much, care too much. What is this bloody problem’s solution.. Anyone ? ????
Yes, there is simple yet very effective solution for this.
Write down all your dreams. Write down all your thoughts. Initially it would be overwhelming, but JUST START, and in few days you will revise that you are getting control on your dreams and thoughts.
Keep Notepad and pen handy.
Or you may use Google Keep Notes app which will be easily accessible than your physical notepad.
Over the period of 7 10 days you would see the difference.
Please don’t forget to come back and update me about you progress ( or difficulty in implementing this )
Good Luck !
should we do the work where we are uncomfortable doing that work
I really appreciate the way you writes. It’s been very helpful for me to know the ways how I was / am wasting time . Thanks alot
Wow, this list is all-encompassing. There are so many ways that we waste time, and we don’t see it. It can be so easy to lose track of time and your day is wasted. Thank you so much for writing this list up in a very fun way. Raheela
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