Are you wasting time?

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Marthe Troly-Curtin

When are you wasting time? Since if you enjoyed the 12-hour binge of your favourite Netflix series, you seem to have not wasted time, according to this quote.

The concept of “wasted time” is subjective – what one person may consider a waste of time may bring joy and fulfilment to another. But is there a way to avoid wasting time unconsciously and ensure every moment is used wisely (and productively)?

Taking Control of Your Time

First, consider your control over time itself. Are you in control of how you spend your time, or do you find yourself constantly reacting to the demands of others (or is the TikTok algorithm determining your time spent in the app)? If you are not in control of your time, you are wasting it.

If you don’t prioritise your life, someone else will.

Greg McKeown

To avoid wasted time, prioritising important things and allocating your time is essential. This means spending time on activities that bring you joy and fulfilment and avoiding activities that do not align with your values and goals.

Though it also means not overspending time on those activities. When we prioritise pleasure over other essential tasks and responsibilities, we may neglect our values and goals (though also, if you prioritise work over pleasure, you are not doing yourself a favour).

For example, let’s spend all our time on leisure activities without setting aside time for work or meaningful relationships. We may find ourselves feeling unfulfilled and unsatisfied in the long run.

Strike a balance between enjoyable activities and other vital obligations not to waste time and make the use of your time meaningful.

Explore More

If you enjoyed this and want to dive deeper into the topic, here are some additional resources you might find interesting:

• 📚 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown is a guide that encourages readers to streamline their lives by focusing on what’s essential and eliminating the rest. It provides practical strategies to help individuals discern the vital few from the trivial many, thereby leading to a life of greater control, clarity, and satisfaction.
• 🎥 The video discusses the concept of “batching” from the book “The 4-Hour Workweek,” likening it to waiting for a critical mass of laundry or mail before taking action, which saves time and resources. Tim Ferriss elaborates on how this principle can be applied in various ways in business, such as dedicating specific days to different types of tasks, batching phone calls, or even travelling, all to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
• 📝 The article introduces “niksen,” a Dutch concept of doing nothing, as a countermeasure to our increasingly busy and stressful lives. Niksen, which means to be idle or do something without any use, is recognized for its potential benefits, such as reducing anxiety, strengthening the body’s ability to fight off a common cold, and fostering creative problem-solving. Personal note: honestly, this is not a big thing in NL, but it is big outside in the media ;).