How To Stop Wasting Your Time

January 13. 8:44

I had a busy day today. Though I have accomplished some things today, I think I could have done something more today. Same thing in these past few weeks. If you take a look at it, this is my 12th post in 13 days. Meaning, I missed only one day this January.

How are you doing today, friends and fellow writers? How are you in your New Year's Resolution? I hope you are still on track.

In the past few weeks, I have been struggling to improve my productivity. I am aiming to duplicate what I have achieved in November of 2021. I earned about $250 worth of BCH from read.cash and noise.cash that month. The biggest that I have earned in a month since I joined these two platforms.

 At the time of writing, I have earned only about 50% of what I earned in the first 10 days of November in read.cash. In noise.cash, my earning rate has dropped to about 30%-40% only. I was able to earn more or less $2.00 a day in November. Now, I'm earning less than a dollar a day.

 I have been observing myself and analyzing, what is wrong with me these days. One reason could be, I have a busier schedule at school these days compared to November. However, I realized, I have been wasting too much time on some unnecessary activities every day since December.

 So, I thought of some ways on "how to stop wasting my time". Maybe some of you here can relate and want to solve this problem too.

Disclaimer

Before anything else, a little disclaimer. The content of this post is based on my own experience only. I am not an expert when it comes to time management. In fact time management is one of my biggest weaknesses. Thus, the solutions outlined below might or might not work for you.

How To Stop Wasting Your Time.

Created using Pixteller

Identify the biggest time-wasters

 I think this is the most important part. Identify which activities that you do every day that do not contribute to your productivity. Here are some of mine.

• Watching TV and Movies Online. I have minimized this before. However, during the Christmas break. I have spent... wasted so much time catching up with my favorite TV series like The Flash, CSI: Vegas (thankfully this one only had 10 episodes this season), and more.

• Mobile Games. I already stopped playing the zombie-apocalypse-themed "The Last Day On Earth", but I have installed a space-shooting game Galaxiga, which looks similar to a classic game known as Galaga.

• Instagram. I don't spend so much time on Facebook. But I have been spending about an hour or two on Instagram each day. Though, I intend to increase my followers on Instagram for online marketing purposes soon.

• Overthinking. Yes, I am an overthinker. Sometimes, I spend so much time thinking.

• Slow Internet Connection. I rely mostly on online tools. So I when our Internet connection throttles down, I waste so much time waiting for my work to be uploaded.

These are just a few of my biggest time-wasters.

Image Source: Unslpash

Get Rid of Distractions

Identify the causes of distraction and get rid of them.

• The watching binge will have to go first. However, it does not mean, I am going to deny myself some entertainment time. I just need to set time for watching TV and movies.

• Open only a few tabs in your browser. I got a habit of opening multiple tabs on my browser. I end up distracted by some of these tabs often.

• Close unused apps.

Plan your day

• Being organized is a great help. It will help you focus on what needs to be done each day.

• List down the task that you need to do each day. However, never cram up your schedule.

DO NOT Multi-task

• While there are things that you can do at the same time, like thinking on what to do next while brushing your teeth or in the shower, I don't fully believe in multi-tasking. "Multi-tasking" actually prevents us from focusing on a certain task. Thus making us inefficient.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Focus on the task at hand

• Work on one task at a time. Right now, I'm using an app to help me monitor how much time I am spending on a task. I have now spent 39 minutes on this article. Excluding the 3 minutes break after the first 20 minutes.

Have a comfortable and organized workspace.

• This is what I lack for now. I don't have a comfortable workplace here at home. There is one, but the wifi signal is too weak.

• Having a comfortable workspace will help you work more efficiently.

• Being organized will help you get things done in less time. Moreover, you will save time looking for the things that you need.

Have the right equipment and tools

• This is something that I need. I have a slow laptop. I hope I can afford to upgrade this soon so I can be more efficient.

• Use the right apps to help you focus

Image Source: Unsplash

Improve your efficiency

• Improving your efficiency means making fewer mistakes. This means you don't waste time correcting your work.

• This can only be done by constant practice and improving your accuracy each time.

Discipline and Persistence

• I think these two are the most important. Without discipline and persistence, you just might end up abandoning your quest to improve your productivity.

• Procrastination and other forms of laziness are always lurking working to take hold of you.

 Final Thoughts.

To accomplish more tasks in a short time does not only mean you have to be fast. If you are fast but commit a lot of errors means you need to do things all over again. Efficiency means you work with accuracy. You work with few or no errors. Thus you accomplish more in a short time.

I think this video will prove my point.

Thanks For Reading