If you want to make the most of your life, you should know the biggest drains on it and the type of impact they have on you. Once you know the elements that are wasting your time, you can free up many hours of your valuable time every week; subsequently, you can use that time on the things that matter the most to you.
The more you get better at the skill of time management you will be able to live a better, happier, and more meaningful life.
Scrolling Social Media
One of the biggest time-draining sources today is social media. In fact, social media has seemingly had a serious impact on nearly everyone’s life, as people can actually lose track of time when they keep aimlessly scrolling social media and checking what others are doing.
We all are guilty of wasting tons of time on social media, watching YouTube videos and shorts without any real purpose behind it. That said, if your social media use is genuinely intentional, then you certainly have nothing to complain about—but for most people, their social media use is not that intentional.
The primary objective of the various social media platforms is to hijack the user’s attention, hooking them on the hamster wheel and putting them in a continuous loop of dopamine so that users can’t help but constantly check their social media feed.
Also, all of the social media platforms are algorithmic; it is impossible to catch up with the news feed because there is always more in stock that the algorithms are feeding to the users. If you are equally guilty, you should know the various effective techniques that you can use to stop scrolling.
For instance, you can remove social media apps from your home screen, which induces friction as the apps won’t be instantly available to access on your home screen. You can also limit screen time on your phone to control how much social media you consume in a day.
Also, you will want to be brutally honest with yourself and logically reason with yourself how social media has improved your life in any way. For instance, are you convinced that you really need to scroll social media to relax? Wouldn’t it be better if you were to grab a book and read that instead?
You might as well want to think of all the ways that you could use your time efficiently, which you would otherwise spend on social media, and work on your goals instead, such as working on your book project. Speaking of book projects, you might want to check out the literary agents in Washington, DC, that is, if you reside in Washington, DC, and you have completed your first draft, edited it, and hired a professional editor to do the needful, and you are ready to send out query letters to potential literary agents who might be interested in representing your work to the publication houses.
Nonetheless, when it comes to social media, it might do anything but not help you relax, as it is a stimulant that is more likely to reduce the quality of your sleep and focus. So, if you are serious about stopping wasting your time, then you might want to delete your social media apps as an experiment and see where it takes you.
Daily Chores
Understandably, chores are a crucial part of life but you should only focus on the chores that help you to keep order and maintain your life, such as laundry, cleaning, and cooking. That said, if you enjoy doing chores and spending time cleaning, cooking, and running all sorts of errands, and you feel that the chores are intentional, enjoyable, and effective, then you will definitely want to continue doing those things.
However, if you don’t enjoy doing any of the things that are labeled as chores, then you will want to assess which one of the chores can be delegated, deleted, or automated. For instance, if you juggle two jobs and you also work on a side hustle, it might be in your best interest to hire a cleaner and free up more time that you would have spent cleaning, but now you can spend that time on your personal growth.
So, you might want to outsource some of the chores and contribute to the economy while freeing up more time for yourself to do the things that matter the most to you. Here is how you want to think of it: money and time are actually interchangeable, which means that you can actually use money to buy back time.
Watching News
Now if there is something grand happening in the world, there is a great chance that you will be at least vaguely informed about it. Irrespective of this, the news cycle is exclusively designed for entertainment and for clicks and views. This aspect comes as a strong contrast to the ideal purpose of news, which is to inform the people about important events.
Of course, it is mandatory to be informed about what is going on in the world – but – you must make it a rule that reading the news or consuming the news should be something that you do intentionally rather than reactionary or by default.
When it comes to intentionally watching or reading news, it is related to the aspect where you intentionally go on a news site and read about what is happening in the world. You might click on a news channel to find out more about a specific thing happening in the world, which is also intentional.
However, what you want to stop doing is habitually checking the news every day, which gives you nothing but anxiety and a higher level of cortisol. Speaking of the news, if you turn on your television to watch the news, then you should know that television is just another crucial time drain.
Instead of wasting your time and watching one hour after another television, you can leverage that time and learn a new language or spend some quality time with your friends.
