1. Delete social media

Social media is the #1-time waster in the 22nd century. It adds no value to your life, doesn't teach you anything useful, and doesn't even connect you with other people in a meaningful way. Unless you're using Facebook messenger to catch up with an old friend, don't use social media for more than 60 minutes a day. It increases depression, decreases life satisfaction, and is generally not a valuable use of your time. You have better things to do.

2. Remember the Power of Intention

This is about time…You ONLY waste them if you spend them in a different way than you originally wanted. For example, if you binge-watch the entire first season of The Haunting of Hill House in a single afternoon, you've just wasted your time if you intended to do something else. If you had a long week at work and wanted to treat yourself to a chill day, guess what? You didn't waste a second. The intention is everything when the time comes. It is okay to spend time on unproductive activities such as playing games, watching TV, and other mindless activities. As long as it was your intention. Don’t feel guilty about taking the time. Just make sure you INTENT to take downtime instead of wasting time you intended on other activities.

3. Get rid of all distractions

Distraction is one of the biggest time wasters known to man. If you are interrupted while working, it takes you more than 17 minutes to get back into the flow. This means that EVERY time you get distracted, you effectively lose a quarter of an hour. So turn off your notifications, lock your office doors, tell your colleagues and family NOT to disturb you unless it's a legitimate emergency. Eliminate all the distractions you can and you will greatly reduce the amount of time you waste.

4. Focus on one thing at a time

Multi-tasking does not work. You might think it is... But it isn’t. When your focus is distracted, it takes you twice as long to complete every task you focus on. To save more time, become a singles master by focusing on important tasks until completion.

5. Chill Out

Finally, if you want to stop wasting time, stop worrying about wasting time. Guess what? You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping. It's a necessary part of a healthy life, but it's a complete "waste of time" in the sense that you can't do anything while you're asleep. You are wasting your time. It is part of human existence. You’ll get stuck in traffic, get distracted at work (despite your best efforts), find yourself mentally incapable of completing tasks, and waste days on social media. So instead of fighting it, learn to work around it. Accept yourself and all your time-wasting habits for what they are and learn to tone them down. Because at the end of the day, there's no point in stressing about things you can't always control.

Hope this helps.


By: Md. Aamir Aman

The Director of Ruzhn English Language Center

Bugh Meeri Turbat