Learn from wasted time

Become more resilient by figuring out what goes wrong and right

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a few
episodes on how to make your schedule and your life
a little more resilient. Life can definitely be tough sometimes,

(00:26):
but what matters most is how you pick yourself back
up and move forward. Today's tip is about how to
learn from wasted time, because when we learn useful lessons
from wasted time, well it isn't really a waste of time. First,
I want to put a definition out there. I have

(00:47):
seen a number of books and articles lately waxing eloquent
about wasted time. Usually the person has decided to label
anything that is not work or are leading to a
big personal goal, such as running a marathon, as wasted time.
This allows the person to argue against something of a

(01:09):
straw man that the world wants all time to be work,
and by spending time staring at the clouds, our author
is fighting the powers that be. I beg to differ.
Staring at the clouds is not wasted time. Hanging out
all night with friends and family is definitely not wasted time.

(01:30):
Puttering around with a hobby you enjoy is not wasted time.
These things are all fun, and fun is awesome. Instead,
I would argue that time is wasted when it turns
out to be neither meaningful nor enjoyable for you or
the people you care about. By that definition, puttering around

(01:54):
with a hobby is not wasted time. But sitting in
a meeting that didn't actually need to happen, Now that
is a waste. Commuting on a day when there was
no reason not to work from home, well that might
be a waste too. Sending a hot email that then
requires an hour of follow up emails to walk back

(02:17):
definitely wasted time. Looking for the shoes you misplaced that
can burn minutes too. Alas, these are all fairly common
ways to waste time, so I will also put this
out there. We all waste time. I waste time quite

(02:38):
a bit of time. In fact, you probably waste time too.
I have seen thousands of time lugs over the years,
and I have yet to see one where every single
minute was devoted to a professional or personal priority. When
people track their time, they are sometimes dismayed by this.
Some people don't even want to track their time because

(03:00):
they figured they might be wasting time. Best not to
let that be known. But you know what this is shortsighted.
It is human nature to spend at least some time
on things that are neither meaningful nor enjoyable for us
or the people we care about, and beyond that, once
time is gone, it is gone. The best way to

(03:22):
redeem wasted time is to figure out what we can
learn from it. So I would recommend tracking your time,
ideally for a week. Write down what you're doing as
often as you remember, in as much detail as you
think will be helpful for you. Then look at the record.
Note the times when you felt disappointed in how the

(03:45):
time was spent, or angry or bored. What was going on?
Why did you feel that way? I have thought about
this in my own life. I am more likely to
spend long chunks of time grolling around online when I
don't have anything else I actively want to do when
leisure time appears, so I try to always have a

(04:08):
good e book available on my phone and a puzzle
I'm working on to nudge me off my screens too.
As for work days, I'm less likely to wind up
on unnecessarily long or unfocused calls. If I'm clear on
getting agendas beforehand. When I am excited about big projects,
I spend less time on unfocused email checks. Make sure

(04:31):
you've got work in your work days that you want
to do. Of course, there are always big projects that
don't lead to anything either. I've been involved in several
things over the years that have taken weeks, sometimes months,
and not hand out. Maybe you have to people start

(04:51):
businesses that they eventually need to shut down, or maybe
you spend long nights on a project for a client
that they don't wind up using. When we know time
is finite, this can hurt. I would suggest never making
a sacrifice that you will regret should things go differently.

(05:12):
But try this for wasted time. Once the time is spent,
think through how you can recast this time. What skills
did you practice, what lessons did you learn? This can
make you more resilient. For instance, I have several novels
in a drawer that will never go anywhere. I have

(05:35):
written books that were published but that very few people read.
All of these I have taken to viewing as the
equivalent of writing practice. They weren't the performances I hoped
to have, but every hour of writing practice improves my
craft for the books that people have wound up reading.
Maybe a failed project introduced you to someone that you

(05:57):
love having in your life now. Maybe it taught you
what you don't like in a way you couldn't help noticing.
That helps you figure out your real passions. When you
learn from wasted time, it isn't wasted time. It's like
reading a book or getting a degree. Since the time

(06:17):
is gone, we're best off using these lessons as a
guide to spending time better in the future. This is
how we make our lives more resilient. So what have
you learned from wasted time? I'd love to hear about it.
You can reach me at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com.

(06:40):
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

(07:00):
me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
that's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled
out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

(07:29):
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.