What are Your Masked Time-Wasters?

We are all guilty of time wasters which are undeniably hidden from us and some which we are aware of. Most of the things hidden are mostly activities we enjoy doing.

At this COVID 19 Pandemic season, we can either develop ourselves personally or waste valuable time.

I had to intentionally identify my time-wasters to enhance my productivity and to put my energies into productive activities in this COVID 19 Pandemic season. Ask yourself this crucial question; what are your timewasters?

One of my time wasters is checking my emails constantly and trying to check each one by one and some are not necessarily useful!

Time is so precious that you cannot afford to waste it. It's important to keep track of every minute of your time at home and work to be super productive. Time wasters kill productivity and if you identify your time wasters you can still save yourself!

Ok, let's dive in and check out the things that steal your time and denial you to express yourself fully;-

Please take a stock of your activities and list down your time wasters.

• Social Media

We all agree that social media is a great platform for catching up with family and friends and keeping up with the latest trends. Unfortunately, it can be a huge time waster if not checked.

Keeping these social media tabs open while working invites distraction and steals your productivity.

Solution:- Allocate time when you can check your social media accounts when you take breaks while working or when doing activities that add value to your life.

• Lack of Planning

This is quite huge, in our daily activities at home and at work such things include, going for shopping, cleaning, planning for weekends etc.

If you plan ahead, you will notice it becomes easier to do many activities and prioritizing what's important. Sometimes the temptation of not planning is so strong but when you reflect on days not planned for ahead, you will identify the wasted time and the frustration you experience.

Solution:- Plan your day ahead of time and stick to it, not unless emergencies arise that may force you to change your plans. Have a to-do list to make your day organised and when you follow this regimen you will be assured to save on time and to be more efficient in whatever you do.

• Procrastination

Most of us have that one dreaded task that we keep pushing aside. Procrastination compromises our workmanship and wastes lots of time by pushing tasks away that should be done.

You will realize when you procrastinate you are most likely disguising perfection that has underlying irrational fears.

Solution:- Work by order of prioritizing the important tasks and just do them anyway. Procrastination kills efficiency and its important to recognise that the underlying motivation is to avoid making mistakes. We all learn by mistakes and avoiding making mistakes is triggered by irrational fear. Take the bull by its horn and do it!

• Delegation Avoidance

This is a common time drain to most leaders who spend so much time on detailed tasks that could save their time by delegating, to their direct reports.

Some reasons for not delegating tie some truth in them, but prioritizing tasks and enhancing learning to your direct reports can save you time to focus on more important tasks.

Solution:- Inspecting your to-do list and selecting the tasks that you can delegate to someone in your team can create more time for higher priorities, and learning opportunity to a team member.

"Time is the scarcest resource and unless it's managed, nothing else can be managed."

Peter F. Drucker

• Saying Yes to everyone

Learning to say No is a good skill that should be embraced by everyone. We must live with the reality that we cannot please everyone. That's a bitter pill to swallow, but that's the reality of life.

By saying "Yes to everyone is doing yourself a disservice since you end up wasting time that can be invested in productive activities.

Solution:- Be honest with others and simply inform them that you are not available may be to lead a meeting or whatever else they're requesting. Learn to be assertive but also respectful of other people's feelings at the same time.

• T.V.

I had a discussion with a friend and I asked her if it was possible to live without the flat-screen box? And guess what she said, "it's not easy to live without one?" Anyway, that was her opinion but my take remains that T.V. is one of the greatest time wasters in this generation.

Most of the shows sell themselves as educational and informative but in the actual sense, they aren't. Of course, some are, but if you are constantly glued to the T.V. you are wasting away and killing this God-given treasure known as time.

T.V. is a horrendous time waster, I know I might sound offensive but do it moderately if you must.

Solution-: It's vital to have recreation and its good to unwind. If you are a T.V, fun you can use this as your recreation time moderately. Naturally, fun time is planned for and it happens in a fortnight.

• People who bring You down

Sometimes we tend to overlook our circle of influence and to differentiate the people who bring us down after talking to them. We have a mix of friends those who are only there when

things are good and true friends who stick with us at all times.

It's wise to invest more time with people who challenge you, and who add value to your life as opposed to hanging around people who sap your energy.

Solution:-

Avoid people who waste your time by bringing you down and taking your energy and time. Invest your time with people who want the best out of you.

• In Conclusion

Identifying time wasters will set you free and pave ways for you to invest time in learning and improving yourself especially, in the current global crisis of COVID 19 when we are all in a lockdown. It is time to take advantage of the time in our hands currently, to learn personal development skills.

You can use this time to strengthen family relationships especially parents can teach and invest life skills in their children which is rare these days.

Time is a precious gift that cannot be recovered, don't waste it at all!

Leave a comment for me and lets converse on time wasters.