Time is money. It?s amazing how often we forget that while we make our way through our daily routines.
Most of my days are pretty similar. I get up and get ready and then I go to work at my full-time job. After work I go home, prepare supper, play with my dogs for a few minutes, and then sit down and put in at least 4-5 more hours of work, sometimes more and sometimes less, for my freelance business. Then I go to bed so I can do it all again the next day.
For me, more time means more money. More money means I can pay off debt quicker?and quit my full-time job sooner. Everyday I’m discovering new ways to make money, many of which can be done online or from home – like Swagbucks, which allows you to earn rewards for surfing the web. Even if your schedule is nothing like mine I?m sure that your time is just as precious to you as mine is to me. So why do we waste so much time every day?
When I told you about my daily routine what I didn?t mention is the few minutes here and there that I waste on social media, mindlessly watching T.V., or browsing on the internet. It?s not that I want to be productive every minute of every day. Instead it?s that I want to make sure that even my free time is spent on things that are important to me, like my friends and family.
Here are the three biggest time sucking culprits I?ve come across in my life and how I plan to avoid them in the future.
Television
I?ve always been of the opinion that if you have time to watch T.V. then you have time for other more fulfilling activities instead. That doesn?t always mean work. It could be that you decide to use your T.V. time to learn a new skill, practice another hobby, spend time with family, or volunteer in your community. But watching T.V. is a time sucking activity that gives absolutely nothing back to your life so it?s one that I?ve worked very hard to stay away from.
Smart Phones
Ahh smart phones! They?ve made our lives easier in so many ways. These days we can be connected to our friends, family, and our bosses 24/7 (which is not always a good thing). But smartphones can also be a huge time sucking culprit. With their many social media apps, like Facebook and Twitter, and their long list of games, like Candy Crush, it?s hard not to get sucked into using your smartphone for things that don?t enhance your life.
To combat this in my life, I?ve deleted all of the games from my phone and I try to limit my social media activity as much as possible. I still use social media regularly for personal and professional use, but I try not to get carried away with it. I used to use the games on my smartphone as an time-filling measure whenever I had a few awkward minutes between scheduled activities in my day, but now I try to spend that time building my business on social media, or reading a novel on the [easyazon_link identifier=”B00I15SB16″ locale=”US” tag=”wisedollar-20″ cart=”y” popups=”y”]Kindle[/easyazon_link] app.
Computers
Much like smartphones, computers are a daily part of the lives of lots of people. I use a computer for at least 12-15 hours each weekday between my full-time job and my online business ventures. It?s hard to completely get away from computers, but there are still some ways to avoid losing track of time while watching cat videos on YouTube.
Time tracker apps can be installed that force you to get off the Internet after a certain amount of time, or you can just set an old-fashioned timer.
Sometimes I?m guilty of telling myself that I?m ?doing research? for one of my writing jobs, when really I?m just wasting time on the Internet. Luckily, WordPress has a ?distraction free writing? mode that prevents this from happening when you are in the middle of writing an article. 🙂
How much time do you waste on these activities each day or week? How do you manage your time so you don’t waste too much time? What are some other time sucking activities are you guilty of?
Photo courtesy of: mojzagrebinfo
Wise Dollar
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Of the list, television is what consume my time the most. I spend two hours each day. Thus, I am trying to avoid it as much as I can but I really need to watch news and TV series (GOT). Now, I watch some of those while on commute to work.
I don’t watch much TV. Instead, I get most of my news from the internet. Luckily, one of my freelance gigs is sourcing news articles so I get paid to do it. 🙂
The two things I waste time on are surfing the internet and watching tv. I would I spend about 2 hours on a weekday and a whole lot more on the weekend. I’m actually ashamed at how much time I spend during my weekend doing that. I could get a lot of crap down in that time.
I don’t typically waste too much time, but once in a while I just have a vegging out day with the TV.
I don’t think most of us realize just how much time we waste on our smartphones. There are times when I catch myself “watching” a TV show only to really be on my phone playing games. Of course, there are times when vegging out is needed, it’s just that you have to be disciplined with with.
That’s exactly right Jon. We all need down time, but we need to make sure it doesn’t get the best of us.