The importance of time cannot be over emphasized, especially in today’s world where there is hardly enough time to do all the things one may like to do each day. Someone has rightly said that every man is a product of the way he uses his time. In a way, that is really the main factor that makes some rich and others poor, some prosperous while others battle with failure. If you are going to amount to anything in life, it will take time but the amount of time it takes depends on how well you use the time you have and determines the level of success you can achieve. Thats why we are going to consider the different ways people waste time and some tips that can help you stop wasting time. Generally, when people consider a successful person, one can hardly imagine what they go through in private and how they use their time to build success. These are just pointers to the importance of time to each and everyone of us. If you could just have more time to yourself on a daily basis, you will definitely accomplish more than you are doing now.

However, no matter how much time we have, if we are wasting large portion of it during the day, it will always feel like we do not have enough time. Have you been wasting too much time in days gone by? And could it be the reason why you hardly accomplish as much as you will like to accomplish? Let’s examine some common time wasters that very few people pay attention to and which are probably the reason why you seem not to have enough time every other day. Whether you have been wasting time on the Internet or on other subtle things, the following tips are important. Hopefully these tips will help you to stop wasting time and be more productive in life as you save your time more skillfully.

Purposeless social media moments

Social media could be a very good way to cool off stress and have some moments of entertainment, but there is a problem when it becomes something one turns to every now and then. Social media is a serious time waster especially when more important things are at hand. It could be the reason why three or more hours of your whole day simply sleep through your fingers without anything important done during that time. The worse thing about social media is the way it can disrupt your focus from important issues. When you have your phone connected to the Internet at the office during work hours, it is hard to resist checking up or replying some messages. It may seem like it is only going to take a few minutes before you get back to work but before you regain focus, about thirty or more minutes would have passed by. On top of that, you have to spend some time trying to get back to the exact point where you were with your work before continuing.

For those who do something that demands a high level of concentration, it may really take some time and effort to get back to what you were doing and continue from where you started. Writers for example will tell you that information or ideas come to them while they write and the slightest distraction can be the reason why what should have been an excellent write up will hardly be as appealing as it should. More so, it will take more time to write the same number of words if you are constantly distracted by social media alerts and messages from your phone or other gadgets. Just deciding to keep social media use under control is one way to stop wasting time on the Internet. As you should already know, social media use is one the most common ways people waste time on the Internet. Add up all those unnecessary moments spent on a daily basis on social media and you will realize that it will all amount to hours. That is time that could be used to accomplish more important task that will take your career further than where it is now. You can save your time and do more profitable things by controlling your use of social media.

Email and other notifications

For the most part, sending and receiving emails is part of the average employees daily experience but it is sometimes one of the ways people waste time. When the notifications come in, you just can’t keep the sender waiting, especially if that person is your boss or a client. So receiving and sending emails could fall under necessary distraction at work. But what leads to even more waste of time are the emails that are not work related at all. You see an advert and before thinking, you decide to check up the link. Now you are browsing a website and then you notice that its already been more than fifteen minutes since you left work to just check what the email in your in box was all about.

You will save a lot more time and accomplish much more everyday if you learn how to avoid time wasted as a result of emails. There are a few things to do in order to stop wasting time on the Internet as far as emails are concerned. One is to simply make up your mind to avoid such distractions and stick to that decision by applying discipline. The other is to take measures against distractions from notifications. If you can help it, be sure to frequently turn off your notifications and only check for new mails at a particular time to avoid distractions. The ultimate thing however would be to make up your mind to be disciplined and set a limit to how much time you spend checking and replying to mails as well as avoiding mails that have nothing related to your work or cannot help you in any way. Apart from wasting time on the Internet, there are other subtle time wasters.

Multitasking

Multitasking is one of the most serious time wasters. How many times have you caught yourself trying to do two or more things at the same time only to realize that you have taken much more time than you should have taken if you decided to do those things one at a time. The ironical thing about multitasking is the fact that most of those who get into it actually think it is doing them much good and saving time.

What really happens when we multi task is that less attention is paid to each of the things we do at a particular time. Also, there is limited energy and focus you can put into one thing and that means you will hardly be able to make it the best it could be. Multitasking is a serious time waster because it takes longer for your brain to move from one task to the next and for your actions to also shift accordingly.

If you decide to type something while drinking coffee or watching a video at the same time, you will find it hard to concentrate on a particular thing and that will mean spending more time on each of them.

In order to waste less time on a daily basis, it is important to make out time for each activity and stick to your schedule. Sometimes, people multi task because they are unable to meet up with their schedule. No matter the reason why you may want to do, it is better to simply understand that multitasking is one of those things that will waste more time than it can ever save. In order to save your time and be more productive in life, learn to do everything at the right time and avoid emergencies.

Disorganized work area

A disorganized work area may not be the type of thing you will expect to see on a list of time wasters. But it is definitely one of those things that lead to a lot of time wastage. You can hardly save your time if you are disorganized. It takes time to think through and apply the right processes that helps you do your job well, so why waste even more time by confusing yourself with a disorganized work environment? Simply put, a disorganized work environment means you have to take more time to find things, put them together before using them. Every job worth doing needs some form of organization or the other put in place for it to be effective. Lets consider something like carpentry or working as a mechanic. There are usually a good number of things that need to be used and if they are not in order before your work begins, you may take a lot of time looking for things when you need them. A disorganized mechanic for example may have a hard time trying to find a particular item in a box that has everything in total disorder. The tools such professions us are sometimes very small and look like other tools. The difference between two items may just be a little increase in size or shape. This means it will be even more difficult finding such an item when things are disorganized. No matter what you do, an organized work area will save you a lot a time while a disorganized work area will cost you a lot of time. Choose to be organized and you will have more time to accomplish more every single day you go to work.

Too much sleep

Sleep is one of those things our bodies can simply not do without. It is just as important as most other things we have need of like food, air and water. But too many people fail to realize that sleep, which should be a means of rest could be one of the most dangerous of all time wasters when taken to the extreme. As a matter of fact, too much sleep is a sign of laziness which is in itself one of the ways people waste time. The average human should sleep between eight to ten hours a day. Except for children younger than eight years of age, those who sleep for longer than ten hours are actually having too much time sleeping. Don’t sleep for pleasure or leisure. You should only sleep because there is a need to and that need is rest. That way, you are able to save your time and accomplish more each day. When you find yourself sleeping because you are bored, it is a sign of laziness and should be dealt with. But this how much does more than enough sleep actually wastes your time.

Lets say you have to sleep for eight hours a night. Then for whatever reason you stretch your sleeping time to one more hour, making nine hours of sleep a day. Not only have you wasted one hour of your day that may have been specifically allocated to some other thing, that extra hour of sleep sets off a domino effect that may at long last ruin the entire day. This is because one task has to encroach into the time of another and so on. Worse still, you may become confused at some point if you have a really tight schedule and that too will take its own part of the time as you try to get things back in perspective. Bottom line is, whatever extra time you decide to spend sleeping will be included in the overall length of time that would have been wasted. Sleep less and you can save more time to accomplish more on a daily basis.

It is also important to take note that sleeping less to gain more time should not be taken to the extreme or else it could become a time waster on the long run. Not having enough sleep may add a few more hours to the length of time when one is awake and active to work. But when the time given to sleep and rest is too small, it makes the person involved less productive in mind and actions. Ideas for example may not flow as easily as they should and you may hardly be as active as you should. All these mean it will take more time for you to do things that were normally done in less time. At the end of the day, you may end up wasting more time than you had even been able to save.

Too many hang out moments

Remember those moments spent chatting over a coke at some joint with some friends? Some of them are just time wasters. They have their place and those moments are important for better and more productive use of one’s time in general. But in a situation where it becomes a daily routine, it could really be a source of distraction and a serious time waster. Ultimately, one will need to learn to make out the right time to hang out with friends for pleasure.

Pushing an exhausted brain

The mind like other parts of one’s entire body needs adequate rest for it to function properly. It is therefore erroneous to push the brain beyond its limit for any reason. It will only result in more waste of time because then the length of time it takes to think through on any problem or process will be more than normal because the brain is tired. It is better to spend some time at such moments resting than trying to push your brain forcefully. Besides the obvious fact that time will be wasted, it also means you may not have the best of ideas come to you at such moments.

Taking more breaks than necessary

One reason why it is extremely important to be disciplined at work and through out the day is that this is usually what make the difference between saving or wasting time. If your work involves a lot of thinking, you are more likely to feel the need to take frequent breaks just to clear off some of the pressure on your brain and mind. But too many people make this too frequent and as a result it becomes a serious time waster. Taking more breaks than necessary is one of the ways people waste time. Your brain sure needs some time to rest but it is not a matter of taking breaks whenever you feel like it. Some times, those breaks are just a temptation to give in to laziness and waste a little more time every now and then which will eventually amount to a lot of time wasted during the day. Decide on how often you need to take a break and rest your mind. Let it be just what you need. Stick to it by applying discipline and commitment. That way, you will definitely waste less time than should have been the case if you went on without limits or self restraints.

Groping in the dark

Working without a definite set of goals is a terrible thing for anyone who desires to make the most of his or her time during the day. You cannot afford to go on without a definite plan on how you are going to use your time. Even though every single minute is not going to be accounted for, it is important to have a set of goals you intend to accomplish for each day and a plan that guides you towards accomplishing those goals. A day without a plan is like moving along a dark or unknown path or worse still following a map you do not understand. The chances of making errors which only help you waste more time are enormous. Have specific goals you wish to accomplish each day and put in place a definite plan for accomplishing them. These will help you save more time on a daily basis.

More than enough entertainment daily

Watching movies is one of those activities that are usually very entertaining though with little or no value to one’s life or personality or work. However, the fact that most people are very much fascinated about movie watching and can hardly hold themselves back is enough reason to take this particular point seriously if you are a movie fan and watch more than one a day. The average length of time for most movies today is about an hour. A good number of them last up to two hours. With all other more important things we need time for, it is amazing how one can still keep those other things aside to watch a movie. There is absolutely nothing wrong with watching a movie in itself. I do it every now and then when I have the time to spare. What I am driving at is the fact that excessive love for watching movies could very well become a great time waster that could keep you from accomplishing your daily goals or attaining success in general.

But movies are not the only thing that take more than a couple of hours off one’s day. We could look at entertainment in general. That will include the length of time spent watching football and other TV programs, listening to music and even playing video games. All these are things that many of us could gladly spend a whole day doing. But seeing that they are not half as important as most of the other activities we have to engage in, it is better we simply learn to prioritize and put these things where they belong on our lists of priorities. Apart from the other entertainment mediums mentioned, you need to watch out for Internet entertainment. Watching videos on YouTube and other forms of Internet entertainment are things you must put in check if you must stop wasting time on the Internet. You can become a lot more productive on a daily basis and make something out of your life by paying attention to how you spend your time each day.