How Not To Waste Your Time

Should I? At some point I had begun feeling like I better not write one. I can lie to my readers, my audience, but what about the people who know and have lived with me? They are going to call me a hypocrite. They’ll laugh at me if I talk about habit formations and self-discipline. But I also have contrasting ideas. It should be me. I have to be the one writing about it because I’ve been trying and failing every day to set habits. And, I know lots of plans, plans that if you follow, you’ll fail. So, I can surely suggest you what not to try.

• Easy tasks first

Most of us believe on taking on easy things first. The little assignments first and the heavy ones later. But, that’s no way to prioritize! It’s true, starting the day with something easy like reading your favorite novel or drawing can be productive. However, you cannot say yes to addictive and less yielding activities like reading manga, checking the Facebook feed or sleeping. One must start his/her day with something that opens up ways for other productive endeavors throughout the way.   

• Waking up at 3 am

It’s not just about keeping an alarm early when we go to bed later. It’s about all the unreasonable goals we keep. If we kick off pushing our limits way too much, we’ll feel drained before we do the usual amount or, just procrastinate before trying. Just enough is fine. You can push your limits but just little by little.

• “I’ll do it tomorrow, I promise.”

Procrastination is the thief of success. And saying that, I just don’t mean the success people like Jack Ma or Elon Musk have but your day to day achievements in the little things you try. If you keep on sparing works for the next day, chances are that you’ll procrastinate even more. So, you must, must, do the things you’re supposed to, little by little. As much as you can. Try, at least!

• “I’m gonna be hard on following my schedule. I ought to make one!”

I suggest, you keep a checklist regarding tasks you’ll need to get done by the day. Don’t go to details. Avoid being precise about the hour and minute. Don’t stress out on being precise, just remind yourself to get things done. And make sure your checklist is short and reasonable.

• “I love my sisters… I can’t ignore events. And, my friends? I can’t miss out on them, either!”

Just another excuse to run away from your responsibilities! If they can balance entertainment/enjoyment, family and work, why can’t you? Prioritize your responsibilities, family and friends are one of them. Make time for everything. Just keep in mind not to miss out one when focusing on the other. Also, make your schedule flexible.

• “No… I can’t do series. No time for movie, either. One Facebook video is just okay.”

There’s a red flag here. If you go for one, the game is over. The interface and everything else is designed to make them engaging and continuous. There’s no way you’ll start a video and not say, just one more, please…

Despite having left to use social media for some time, when I returned back online, the cases were still the same. There’s no going back after you start scrolling your news feed, especially when you were already lazy. Try not to get involved in the first place.

Here, you have it. I might not be worthy enough of saying what to do to save your time, but I am a hundred and one percent the right person to tell you what not to do if you want to have a productive day.