12 Time-Wasters You Should Avoid and What To Do Instead

People often complain about not having enough time to do everything they need and want to do. But most people waste a lot of time every day, without even realizing it. This blog post will help you identify some time-wasters you should avoid. I will also help you find ways to stop wasting your time and do something more beneficial instead.

I’m sure you want to be productive and efficient and get a lot done fast. That is possible, but to do that, you have to be very conscious of how you spend your time. You want to get your work done, but you also want to leave time for fun.

Time management is an important skill to learn, although it’s definitely not always easy! Humans are designed to look for the most comfortable option available and typically that doesn’t involve work or household chores.

But the seemingly easy options that will give you a moment’s comfort aren’t necessarily good for you or even make you happy.

So, let’s change that. Go through this list of 12 time-wasters you should avoid and start spending your time better.

1. Social media

Social media is a wonder, but it is also the biggest time-waster out there. Did you know that people spend roughly 6 hours a day staring at a screen? Of this time, 2+ hours are spent on social media.

That doesn’t necessarily even sound like much at first, but do you really want to spend a full day of your week just scrolling?

Time is precious and you need to be conscious of how you spend it. There are more fun and beneficial things to do than to look at your phone. Use app and website blockers to make sure you don’t waste too much time online and you will have more time to do things that actually matter.

2. Playing games

Playing games is fun and there’s nothing wrong with that. But you should only do that after you’ve done everything you need to do. Also, it’s important to only play games when you actually enjoy them.

It’s astonishingly common to see people get addicted to online games they don’t really even like, just because it’s such an easy way to spend time and the games are addictive.

If you’re not much of a gamer at heart, it might be safer to just stay away from them altogether. If you genuinely enjoy them, just make sure you don’t use them to procrastinate or let them take over all your evenings.

3. Spending time with the wrong people

People are great and spending time with friends or new acquaintances is definitely a good idea. But sometimes we end up spending time with people who don’t make us happy or who aren’t a good influence on us.

Spending time with people when you’re getting nothing out of it is a waste of time. This isn’t to say that you should only ever spend time with your best friends of course.

But if you have friends who drain you or who have a bad influence on you, you might be better off spending time with someone else. And that includes you alone.

4. Working full-time in a bad job

This might sound controversial, but it’s worth thinking about. We are taught to think of full-time jobs as the most important things in our lives and something everyone should aspire to have. But time is our greatest commodity. And you should always think carefully about how you spend it.

If you have a job you like, that’s great. But if you have a full-time job that you hate, it might be a good idea to reduce your hours if possible. People spend a lot of money on things that they don’t really need, such as unnecessarily big houses or apartments. Think carefully if you really need to have the salary you’re making now.

Switching to a 6-hour workday doesn’t just give you two hours more time. It also means that you’ll have more energy when you get home (which you can spend on those things you want to do but never seem to have enough time for) and your commute will likely take less time.

When I cut my hours from 8 to 6, I gained a total of 13 extra hours per week, wasn’t exhausted when I came home from work, and definitely didn’t miss the tiny decrease in my already tiny salary.

5. Lunch breaks at work

One of the reasons I loved working shorter days was that I was no longer required to take lunch breaks.

Of course, you need to take breaks and you need to eat. But having to spend half an hour or more in a small office kitchen eating whatever you hastily packed that morning, is neither the best lunch nor the best time spent.

Try to make your lunch breaks a bit better by doing something simple and productive at the same time. I used to review French words using Anki or read ebooks. This will refresh you just the same and you won’t slip into lazy mode.

6. Trying to be too good and organized

I know you want to be a good person who has everything under control in all areas of life. But with limited hours per day, it’s impossible to do absolutely everything. And more often than not, it’s completely unnecessary.

Take cleaning for example. It’s common to clean your whole house or apartment once a week. That makes sense – but you might be able to cut a few corners and save a lot of time.

First of all, how often you need to clean depends on the house and whether you have pets and so on. There’s no need to clean “just because”. And even if your kitchen needs cleaning, it doesn’t mean that your guest room needs to be vacuumed too.

Focus on doing what actually needs to be done and don’t worry too much about things that don’t even make a difference.

7. Reading news

While it’s good to know what’s going on, constantly reading the news and checking for updates doesn’t just waste your time, it can be bad for your mental health too.

Negative headlines attract more clicks and every awful thing that happens usually gets several articles per website. If you have a habit of checking the news several times a day, consider only reading the news once a day (or even less often).

You don’t need to know every little thing and turn of events. Most of the articles you read you probably won’t even remember tomorrow.

So save your time and protect your mental health by being more mindful of how often you read the news and which articles you read.

8. Never multitasking

Usually multitasking is bad – and a waste of time. But it is bad because you can’t focus on two things that require brain power at once. For example, writing and listening to an audiobook at the same time doesn’t work.

What you can do though, is to do two things that don’t use the same part of your brain. You can definitely clean and listen to an audiobook at the same time. Or watch TV and do pilates. If you have a long list of books that you want to read (or in this case listen to) or you think you should exercise more, do them at the same time and you’ll get more done. It definitely saves time too!

9. Checking your emails and messages often

Many people have the bad habit of constantly checking their emails. This makes it harder to learn to focus on the task at hand which means that it will easily lead to you being less productive.

Choose a time of the day when you check your emails and don’t worry about your inbox other times of the day. Make sure to also put your phone away or on silent when it’s time to work. This will help you get your work done faster.

10. Watching TV

This surprises no one, but TV is one of the biggest time-wasters you should avoid. It’s not to say you should never watch TV. It’s a good way to relax and even get inspired.

But it’s all too easy to decide to watch “just one” episode which then turns into four. Pay attention to how much time you spend in front of the screen every day. Is that an appropriate amount or do you think less would be better?

11. Not planning ahead

Planning helps a lot and it makes your life much easier. It’s a good idea to plan your weekly meals on Sundays, so you don’t have to think about what to make for dinner every night. And it will make grocery shopping faster too.

Also, if you are planning a project or setting a new goal, make sure to have a plan for when something goes wrong. If you know in advance what you will do when something unexpected happens or you lose your motivation, it will be much easier to stay on track and avoid wasting time.

12. Perfectionism

It’s good to do things well, but you should absolutely just focus on getting things done, not being perfect. Perfectionism is one of the not-so-obvious time-wasters that you should avoid.

It’s easy to think that you’re doing the right thing by making sure everything is as good as possible. But in reality, the difference between good and perfect tends to be quite small in most tasks and constantly striving for perfection wastes a lot of your time and energy. It can also cause you a lot of stress.

Instead of focusing on perfection, focus on simply getting things done.

Start asking your self “Am I doing what I’m supposed to do?”

It’s all too easy to spend your time doing things that don’t even matter. Often it happens without you even noticing. That’s why it’s a good idea to set time limits for time-wasters, such as social media or TV.

One way to make sure you spend your time well and waste less time is to make it a habit to every once in a while ask yourself whether you’re doing what you’re supposed to do or not.

It’s easy to let your mind wander or do meaningless things like checking something online. But these kinds of little things just waste your time and don’t help you get the important things done.

Final thoughts on time-wasters you should avoid

It can be hard to spend your time optimally, especially if you give too much time to any of the time-wasters on this list. But that’s exactly why you should learn to manage your time better. That will free up some of your time for better use and you won’t feel as overwhelmed and stressed anymore.

Make sure you’re not spending too much time on any of the time-wasting activities mentioned in this post. Also, keep in mind that not sleeping enough and eating badly will also easily result in you wasting extra time because you won’t be at your best if you don’t take care of yourself.

I hope this post helps you change your habits and spend your time better. Make sure to share it if you found it useful!

Next, read this article about Why Procrastination is the Thief of Time that You Need to Beat!