Are These Time Wasters Stealing Your Happiness?

How much time do you waste in a week? Have you ever counted? It can be an eye-opening and interesting exercise to count just how many hours you spend on optional, non-value-added activities. You might be stunned by the total!

Unfortunately, most of us likely waste at least a few hours each day. Imagine all the amazing things you could do with that extra time – things that would add value and happiness to your life!

CONSIDER THESE TIME WASTERS AND RECLAIM ALL THE HOURS YOU’RE LOSING EACH WEEK:

1. SOCIAL MEDIA.

Checking out timelines or posts can cost us a lot more time than we plan. Just taking a minute to check the latest can easily turn into two hours! Plus, more often than not, you’ll likely find that your forays into social media are detracting from your happiness, rather than adding to it. 2. MULTITASKING.

The research is clear that multitasking is a waste of time. It’s inefficient and rapidly decreases your performance and your focus. Just do one thing and then move on when appropriate.

3. SAYING “YES” TOO OFTEN.

We spend our time on too many things that don’t actually matter much. Know your priorities and be quick to reject those things that get in the way of those priorities.

4. PROCRASTINATION.

Procrastination is the epitome of wasting time. The most successful people tend to procrastinate the least. The reverse is also true. Procrastination is a real time killer.

5. SMARTPHONES.

Nowadays, you can run an entire business from a smartphone, watch a movie, make a movie, play a game, or translate Russian into Cantonese. While smartphones are incredibly capable, most of the time spent on these devices isn’t productive or adding value to our life.

6. CLUTTER.

Clutter creates frustration, makes it hard to find things, and is a obstacle to your ability to focus. Clutter is annoying and a time waster.

7. PERFECTIONISM.

Perfectionism results in spending more time on something than is necessary. Do a task only as well as it needs to be done. You’re just dusting a shelf in your home office, not preparing an operating room for a heart transplant.

8. THE LACK OF A PLAN.

A plan is a thought-out course of action that gives us a better chance to successfully do what we want or need to do. Developing a plan on the fly is rarely a wise choice if there is time to prepare.

9. TV.

It only takes a single night of binge-watching to know that the television can steal a lot of time from your life.

10. PREVENTABLE ILLNESS.

It’s hard to do the things we enjoy when we’re sick or hurt. Take care of yourself and avoid those things that increase the likelihood of getting sick, such as eating poorly, not working out, and not getting enough rest.

11. INSUFFICIENT SLEEP.

Insufficient sleep doesn’t just make you more likely to come down with an illness, it also negatively affects your mood and your ability to focus. It can also kill your productivity and affect your ability to stay in 'drive' for the day.

12. THE INTERNET.

The internet is an endless source of information and, unfortunately, a distraction. It can be useful to track just how much time you’re spending online on unproductive activities.

13. WORRY.

It’s common to worry, but that doesn’t make it helpful. If you can't do something to resolve the situation, why worry? If there’s nothing you can do, what is the point of worrying? Worrying robs you of joy, focus, energy, and time.

Time is a valuable resource that shouldn’t be wasted. There are only so many hours in a day and so many days in a lifetime. You can effectively subtract years of productive time

to your life by wasting less time. What are you waiting for?