How often do you find yourself thinking – I don’t have enough time. Here’s another question for you. How often do you find yourself asking, why am I wasting my precious time?
There is little doubt that many of us (including me) waste some of the precious time we do have.
Often we waste time by doing things that we shouldn’t be doing.
Instead of focusing on our to-do list, sometimes we can benefit a lot more by concentrating on our stop-doing list.
By eliminating the wasteful elements in your life, you will find that you have a lot more time at your disposal.
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Here are my thoughts on how to stop wasting your precious time with a stop-doing list.
First up, let’s look at what your stop-doing list might look like.
- Watching too much television (whether it be television or streaming services).
- Playing too many video games
- Spending too much time on social media (particularly if you don’t use it for work)
- Spending too much time on social media (even if you DO use it for work)
- Doing unnecessary busy work (this phenomenon is rampant in office culture)
- Doing tasks that won’t benefit you (or most likely anyone else) in any way, shape, or form
- Doing tasks that everyone else seems to think are important but don’t matter to you at all. Bear in mind, all of us have a certain amount of these tasks in our lives. The question is, are you going overboard?
- Living someone else’s agenda. This usually means giving in to family or peer pressure of some type.
- Saying yes when you should be saying no. You say yes to everyone and find yourself wasting time (not to mention exhausted) by running around doing things for everyone else. This one is particularly relevant to parents.
Obviously, there are a lot of other items that could be on your own personal list. Think hard, you know what they are (even if you don’t want to admit them).
Be honest with yourself about where you are wasting time.
Looking to get serious about how you spend your precious time? An excellent book Time Magic: Reclaim Your Time, Reclaim Your Life, by Melissa Ambrosini and Nick Broadhurst can help you.
Be careful what you add to your list. I’ll give you a personal example. I spend a lot of time with my cat; however, I never consider this wasted time. Spending time with her relaxes and calms me, not to mention it makes me happy.
Something that makes you happy and fills you with love is not wasted time.
My advice is to pick your top 3 time-wasting offenders and start working on them.
Start weeding them out of your life. Be aware of when you are falling into your time traps. Be diligent about improving. If you think you are up for it, cut time-wasters out of your life completely.
If that seems too difficult, try the baby steps approach.
Writing up a huge list (over 10) might do more harm than good when you first start. The list itself may feel overwhelming, causing you to ditch the whole idea.
Start with one or two items.
Set yourself a check-in date, say a month from now. Report back and write down how you have progressed over the month. Write down any challenges. Record where you did well. You don’t have to go into a lot of detail, just enough to keep you motivated.
What is on your stop-doing list? How can you stop wasting your precious time?
Work out a personalized approach to stop wasting your precious time. Make better use of your time, do more of what matters to you, and move your life forward.
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Make sure you grab a copy of Time Magic: Reclaim Your Time, Reclaim Your Life
Read Next – 16 Reasons You Are Not Achieving Your Goals
Stop procrastinating and spending unecessary time on the internet would be good.
Hi Carine
Thanks for the comment, great to see you here again!
Ah the procrastinating. It can be a hard one to shake. The Internet is definitely tempting, particularly when you use it for work as I do. Wasting time looking through Amazon books (my latest time waster) is only a click away. All temptation is only a click away. I try to set rules for myself. Like write for two hours and then you get 15 mins on YouTube. Of course the key is making sure you stick to the 15 mins!
Always lovely to see you here again.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
Cheers
Thea
I know all about time wasters, mine are shopping on ebay or amazon for various different items (what I’m looking for changes from week to week as a new idea filled with desire pops into my head) and I used to waste ages on websites with meme based jokes.
Recently I cut one out (the meme based jokes) and reduced the other(I don’t think I can ever stop online window shopping) because I knew rasing my child, writing my next book and trying to sell my completed novel were going to need all the time and focus I could afford.
We must be on the same wavelength, because I just wrote a similar post, but mine was about having the determination to find any scrap of time and make it work for you.
Thanks for a great viewpoint and the tips on how I can help myself find some more time.
Hi Kirstie
Thanks for your comment. Really appreciate it.
I can definitely relate to window shopping at Amazon. Amazon has been my recent time waster, though thankfully I haven’t looked at anything else but books. I think I must be one of the few people who has never looked at eBay. Probably a good thing!
Great to hear we are on the same wavelength. 🙂 I will have to check out your post. Funny you should mention the scraps of time. I remember going clothes shopping with my girlfriend and while she was trying on clothes I was busy outside the store jotting down story ideas in my notebook. Not exactly writing but still an opportunity to brainstorm some ideas for later. As you know, it all adds up.
You would definitely have your hands full with a child, writing a book and trying to sell a completed novel. Have you thought about self publishing an electronic product? I have been looking at Kindle books lately. Definitely an eye opener in regard to what people are doing with books online.
Thanks for stopping by, all the best with your writing and I look forward to seeing you here again soon.
Cheers
Thea
Self publishing is an idea I’ve been thinking of lately. Right now I feel like I should keep trying at traditional publishing, I haven’t run out of options or hope yet, but I’ve been compiling ideas, links and info on self-publishing so if I do decide to I can switch over to that with plenty of info already gathered to help me make my choices.
And with sneaking those tiny snatches of time, back when I was full time at work I used to drive and it took about 45 minutes. I kept a pen and notepad on the passenger seat and when stopped at traffic lights I’d sometimes write down an idea or line if inspiration hit me while driving. It’s funny how inspiration hits when you’re trying to do other things. Taking my baby for a walk in the pram is like a gold mine for my stories sometimes.
Hi Kirstie
Good luck with the traditional publishing, I wish you every success. 🙂
That is great that you have another option with self publishing as well. Smart move to have all the info on hand in case you decide to go down that road. I love walking for ideas as well, things pop into my head all of the time when I go for a walk. Having a shower is another place where people say they get ideas. I have read about writers that keep pen and paper in the bathroom so they can write stuff down. I don’t do that, I try to remember ideas and write them in my book as soon as possible.
I look forward to staying up to date with your progress. Thanks for commenting and I look forward to hearing from you again soon.
Cheers
Thea
I never would have thought of making a Stop Doing list. What a great idea!
I need to stop checking my email so often during the day, stop spending so much time writing To Do lists rather than doing, stop thinking so much about tasks that they become daunting, and stop logging in to social media sites just to read through the home page of tweets or status updates.
Sigh.
Stop reading emails over and over and over again without doing something about it. I really have no idea why I do this, but it takes me forever to answer emails. So, if I could stop doing that, I would have plenty more time.
I do the same thing! I make myself crazy.
Hi Anne-Sophie
I tend to do the checking emails thing a lot. Mainly if I am waiting for something and it is taking a while to come through. I tend to read in batches though. I need to get better at responding at well. Definitely a work in progress there, but I am improving. I tend to take longer over the emails that may or may not be spam. Sometimes it can be really hard to tell and I am not sure if I should reply or not. I tend to read those a couple of times to try to figure what is legitimate and what isn’t.
Cheers
Thea