The biggest time waster of all

Spending time mindlessly burns more hours than anything else

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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.
Today's tip is about how to avoid the biggest time
waster of all, which is probably not what you think
it is. People often ask me what's responsible for the

(00:24):
bulk of wasted time, and certainly there are many culprits. TV,
internet surfing, social media, pointless meetings all consume more hours
than people often like. But after studying thousands of time logs,
I think the biggest time waster is something entirely different.
It's letting time pass mindlessly. When we don't think about

(00:46):
how we'd like to spend our time, we tend not
to spend it on our top priorities. We spend our
time on whatever is right in front of us, other
people's priorities, for instance, and things that are urgent but
not important. When we do spend time intentionally, though, we
can make space for all kinds of wonderful things, even
in the midst of a very full life. Here are

(01:08):
some examples of how mindlessness wastes time. You don't think
about what you need to do during the work day
or how long things will take, so when you show up,
You wait into your inbox, then before you know it,
it's time for your first meeting, which is at ten
thirty am. When you get back, you realized you've got
a complicated assignment due tomorrow, but of course there's no

(01:30):
large time block anywhere. In between meetings, you chip away,
but you're still dealing with the inbox, And finally, at
five pm, the meetings are over, but you've still got
this assignment. You spend the evening at work instead of
doing something fun. It winds up taking you two hours
of focus time. But here's the thing. You normally get
to work around eight thirty am. You could have done

(01:51):
your assignment between eight thirty and ten thirty am and
still had plenty of email time the rest of the day.
You could have left at five pm instead of seven pm,
or laid here since you didn't think about it, though
you didn't wasted time. This happens in our personal lives too.
You get home tired on Friday evening and just turn
on the TV. Your spouse flits in and out of

(02:12):
the room, sometimes watching, sometimes perusing something on his or
her phone. Eventually you both realize you're hungry, so you
eat what's there and fall asleep in front of the TV.
You wake up and putter around. Finally, around midday, you
start thinking about what you might want to do that evening,
but you don't have any ideas. Big chunks of the
weekend feel uninspiring. Indeed, you've done nothing of note in

(02:34):
the first twenty four hours you're off work, But you
don't feel like you're relaxed either, because you keep passing
the unsorted mail pile and undone household projects that make
you feel guilty. Spending time more mindfully might mean having
a conversation with your spouse about the weekend beforehand. You guys,
get tickets to a show on Saturday night and ask

(02:55):
some neighbors to join you. Now you have a fun
plan to look forward to. You also make a reservation
at that hip restaurant for Friday night. You still don't
have to cook, but now you're eating much better. You
check the weather and see it will be rainy Saturday afternoon,
but Saturday morning will be perfect, so you get up
early enough to go for a long bike ride. Now

(03:15):
the weekend feels like you've done lots of interesting things,
and it's just by spending time mindfully. Now don't worry.
I know some people are planners and some aren't. I'm
not saying you should plan every minute. Some people like
to get together with friends on Friday night and then
just wander a cool neighborhood seeing what restaurants look appealing.

(03:36):
That's totally fine. You might decide to visit a farmer's
market you've read about that's an hour away, and then
see whatever adventures await you in that town. Being mindful
leaves plenty of space for serendipity, but being mindless kind
of bats serendipity away. There won't be much serendipity if
you're sitting in your house channel surfing in the means time.

(04:00):
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 me on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's B the number four,

(04:26):
then Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me
an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i heeart media
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 of I heart Radio.

(04:48):
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