Sometimes it is hard to find things to do that won’t be considered a waste of time or something that will draw you in and next thing you know it’s been 3 hours and you feel less motivated than ever before to do anything. I am in no way ever saying don’t do these things. However, over the years, I have found certain things to be a really big time waster and leaving me feeling groggy and less motivated than ever before. 
One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, time wasters is social media. I could go on my phone to check one thing on Instagram or facebook or watch a few Tiktoks and next thing I know I’ve been reading posts or watching the 1 minute clips for two or more hours. We live in a digital age so almost everything we need to tell someone or any sort of news we get or facts we learn about comes from social media or somewhere on the internet. We can get so caught up in puppy videos or looking at places we would rather be or caught up in conversations or heated arguments that make it impossible to put our phone down. Social media is definitely the hardest one to avoid. We want to and have this ever lasting urge to stay connected with the world but there is also a lot of toxicity that comes from our addiction to social media. Social media is amazing but dangerous, I know I often get so lost it in.
The next one is Netflix, Hulu, disney+ or any other form of streaming service.
Now I am not saying it is completely a time waster. However, binging shows becomes extremely easy. You sit down and tell yourself “I’m only going to watch one or two episodes” then it becomes “okay just one more” then the next thing you know you’re halfway through season two and it’s almost 3am. I have been in this boat way more than I will ever want to admit. Binging can become addictive and it can become a big time waster since next thing you know you have not accomplished anything on your beautifully written out to do list.
Another big time waster is irrelevant meetings, presentations, tasks, projects,
etc. I know there are things we all want to do or someone we know is going to something and we want to as well. However, sometimes we over prioritize useless time wasting events over the things we need to get done. For example, I know I have often prioritized my emails or attending a meeting I did not have to go to over my work and over my chores at home. It is so easy to spend our day doing things that will not help us move towards the success we are trying to set up for ourselves.
Another time waster is over multitasking. By this I mean, trying to always do two
to five things at once. When we try to do this, none of them get done, or they will never get done to our fullest potential, then before you know it, you have to go back and re-do each task one by one and all the work you did before was for nothing. I know we always want to be moving ahead and attempting to get as much done as possible, but taking one thing at a time is the best way to ensure each thing has our all and we aren’t wasting time trying to get as much done in as little time as possible.
In summary, some of the biggest time wasters are
Social media
Streaming services
Irrelevant tasks
Over multitasking
I know it is so easy to fall into bad habits and to procrastinate or simply “waste your time” because at the end you tell yourself “nothing bad is going to happen by not accomplishing these tasks” or “these are just things I wanted to get done, I didn’t necessarily have to do it today”. Trust me, I say this to myself almost every time I don’t accomplish things off of my to do list. Some days I will snooze way too many times, take a lot longer than necessary to get out of bed, or spend the whole day on social media or binging a new show I just discovered. There are so many things that fill up my day that prevent me from accomplishing everything I want to.
Below are some easy habits to form to help yourself to avoid these time wasters and to ensure you are doing what you need to do instead of procrastinating like many of us programmed ourselves to do.
1. Creating a to do list
I love to-do lists. I create to-do lists for anything and everything. I also get such a big rush knowing I crossed something off of my to-do list and I think this is the biggest factor as to how I attempt to stay on track with what I need to get done. Setting a to-do list for yourself helps you look at the day and choose what it is you need to get done. Having it written out in front of you will help you to know and understand the tasks to get done for the day and to continuously remind yourself of what expectations you are setting for yourself for the day. Telling yourself what you have to get done before you allow yourself to watch that episode, scroll on instagram, or attend a class or meeting you may or may not have to participate in.
2. Setting time limits
It is important to set time limits. This is more needed for ongoing projects, school, working from home, or side hustles from home. Just telling yourself you want to work on your blog or your instagram page or your newest novel or studying for a test, can sometimes make you overwhelmed and you start to push it off until the last possible minute then spend a lot more time than needed and you’re left with no time at all to do anything else that day. Giving yourself a time limit such as “I am going to work on my blog for 1 hour” or “I am going to work on building my social media platform for 30 Minutes” or “I am going to study for 1 hour before allowing myself to take a break” will help not only teach yourself discipline but also help keep you on track for accomplishing these things. Setting time limits for yourself is one of the most beneficial ways to set yourself up for success.
3. Scheduling in blocks
Sometimes I find it easiest to schedule my day in various time blocks. This also ties in to giving myself time limits on certain tasks, however, it is time blocking the entire day. This allows you to get yourself a more set schedule on the day and help you stay on track to try to ensure you get everything done, and if you finish before the end of the block, you can give yourself a break. However, while doing this, it is also important to ensure you factor in something relaxing. For example, schedule in 30 minutes for watching a show or 45 minutes to catch up on some leisure reading, or an hour to just give your mind a break from focusing on what you have to get done. Scheduling in time blocks is an easy way to set your day up for success. I love it because I can look at my day and see how long it might take me to get through my boring chores and know I am dedicating enough time to working on my own projects. For example, you can start your day by setting up an hour for working out, 30 minutes for a meal, 1-4 hours for your miscellaneous chores depending on how many you have to get done during the day, 1 hour break, 2 hours to work on your side project like a blog, and so on so on until you’ve found a way to squeeze in everything. Setting up a time block can be extremely beneficial, if you actually stick to it.
4. Setting timed breaks
This goes along with setting time limits. However, breaks are just as important as everything you have to get done. If you don’t take a break you will overwork yourself and everything towards the end of your day might never get done because you burnt yourself out. It is important to set timed breaks. For example, with every 2 hours of work you are doing, set a 30-40 minute break. It might be beneficial to set a timer to ensure you are keeping yourself accountable and only resting for a small period of time instead of the rest of the day. I know I have often run into the issue where I wanted to give myself a 30 minute break after completing 75% of my to-do list. However, that 30 minute break turned into 4 hours and absolutely nothing getting done for the rest of the day.
5. Having an accountability partner
I think having an accountability partner is super beneficial. It can be the same person working on the same goals as you, it can be a group of people so there is always someone available to keep you accountable, or it can be a variety of people who you work with to keep each accountable in various different aspects of your life and various different goals. Having someone there that you talk to and report to will help keep you on track because our minds don’t want to let people down, we don’t want to ever feel like a disappointment to anyone, so we will work harder to ensure we get our work done in order to please everyone else and to escape the negative feeling we might get knowing someone was counting on us to do something. It also helps working on projects with someone else, so you can ensure neither of you get side tracked or procrastinate too much, but it can also help get your creative juices flowing because you have another mind to bounce ideas off of. Having another person there to report to or help keep you accountable, or help keep each other accountable can be very beneficial especially if you are starting a new hobby or setting new goals for yourself. We were born into a society and that means we were never meant to do things on our own, at least not everything and not completely.
6. Starting with small goals
Sometimes, I have difficulties with setting my goals. I know I like to think too big and I set too many goals for myself and I forget to break down my goals. My goals or tasks become to vague and nearly impossible to do because I only ever look at the big picture instead of every line needed to create it. I start too big, I tell myself I want to work on growing my social media platforms, or work on my blog, or sometimes I simply leave it at just saying I want to clean. These items are way too vague and there are so many different directions each thing can go, how will I know I actually accomplished what I wanted to accomplish. Setting smaller goals will make the bigger goals seem like a piece of cake. This also can relate to getting all of your smaller simpler tasks out of the way first, since you know you can bang it all out in an hour if you really put your mind to it. Then you will have the rest of the day to focus on your bigger projects. However, going back to setting big goals and having them come out too vague. It is important to break down your goals, re-evaluate your to-do list and tell yourself exactly what you want to get done today. When you say clean, you would say sweep the kitchen floor, do the dishes, put away the laundry. Then if you have a goal of working on a blog, you would say, work on drafting two articles, touch up my social media links, come up with 5 new post ideas for the upcoming week, and promote my blog in at least 5 different groups. This will ensure you are getting done the actual things you want to get done instead of overwhelming yourself with the vagueness of your to-do.
7. Prioritizing things
Everytime you make a to-do list you should always be prioritizing things. This will help ensure you are getting the things you absolutely need to get done. You can do this by either creating your to-do list, then rewriting it in order of importance, you can put a number next to it to state which items you want to do first, or you can highlight the ones that are the most important that you absolutely have to make sure you get done. This will help you since you are doing everything necessary before you begin working on things that aren’t as important as you get done today. For example, you might put all of your chores before checking your email (unless you are waiting for a very important email), you might put packing ahead of writing your next blog article (unless you are working with a brand and you have a deadline to meet). Only you will know the importance of each task you have to do, so only you can prioritize your list.
We will always have things in our lives that are time wasters and things that take us away from doing what we actually need to be doing. However, even just taking a step back and breathing and just shutting out the world while you work on everything you need to work on can be a complete world changer. So, do what you have to do. Set a timer to ensure you don’t spend more than 30 minutes on social media, get an accountability partner, turn off your phone or put it on do not disturb and put it in a different room of your house so you are not tempted by it. Find ways to eliminate distractions and create the best environment possible for yourself to be your best self. And keep on being amazing.