There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and only you have the power to decide on what to do with these seconds. You could choose to make these seconds count, or to simply let them go to waste. Most people would say that they would, of course, use these seconds as wisely as they could. They, however, often do not know how.
Wasting time is a common scenario among people of all ages. What makes this worse is the fact that some people are not even aware that they are already wasting their time doing useless things. People spend most of these seconds on social networks, making them end up with no accomplishment at all. Why not try to make your 86,400 seconds a lot more productive? Here is a list of 10 things you can do instead of wasting your time:
1. Try reducing the number of your commitments
It is not bad to attend parties and get-togethers once in a while; however, attempting to attend ten of these or even twenty in a single week is already too much, and even a waste of your time. Try reducing the number of parties and get-togethers that you attend to. Keep in mind that there is only one Friday night, and one Saturday night in a week. These two nights would not be enough for your long list of commitments. Try committing less, and save time for activities and errands that really matter.
2. Choose to call a person, rather than text him or her
Texting is a fast way of communication, but the message you send thru it could end up being very vague. It could take the person on the other end of the line a few minutes to guess, or to finally understand what you really meant with your text message. After that, it would again take them another few minutes to think of the proper response, and to construct the text message that would be sent out to you.
Here’s a tip: instead of wasting all of these minutes on guessing and waiting, just simply give them a call. By doing so, you could properly tell the other person what you really mean, and the other person could clearly understand this. It would only take about four short minutes to do so – a span of time a lot shorter than when you send out unclear text messages to each other.
3. Download audio books and listen to them
Do you have a book that you promised yourself you would read, but couldn’t find the right time to do so? Instead of sparing time for reading novels and fictional books, you could simply listen to audio books instead. Finding the audio book that matches the book of your choice is no problem, since almost every single fictional book sold in the market today already has an audio book version. Put this audio book in your iPods or mp3 players, and listen to it as you walk your dog, or as you take a long drive, or even when you shop for your groceries. This is a perfect way to do two things at the same time.
4. Try answering all of your e-mails right away
If you think you have nothing to do on your smartphones and laptops, answer all of your pending e-mails instead of wasting so much time on social networks. Not only did you save yourself from wasting time by doing so, but you also managed to save yourself from having to face piles of unanswered e-mails in the near future.
5. Stream movies online
If watching movies is your thing, then here’s a great tip for you. Movies shown on television channels often are accompanied with dozens of television ads and commercials – stuff that you most probably aren’t even interested in. Instead of wasting your time waiting for these lousy television ads to be finished, stream your movies online instead. This way, you could watch the movie without being interrupted by boring ads and commercials. You could even decide where and when to watch these movies provided that you are using your laptop and that you have a strong and fast internet connection.
6. Try buying your groceries and necessities in bulk
Reduce the time you spend in supermarkets and grocery stores by buying your items in bulk. Toilet paper, for example, is always needed and gets used up fast. To save yourself from the trouble of having to go back to the supermarket just to buy toilet paper, buy large quantities of it instead and stock it in your storage containers at home. Doing the same for all of your necessities at home could save you a lot of time. Not only that, but buying in large quantities could also help you save a couple of bucks since bulk items usually are coupled with discounts.
7. Take snapshots of notes on your smartphones
Is there an important note that you have to remember? There’s no need for you to actually write this note down. Looking for a pen and paper would take up a couple of minutes, and another couple of minutes for actually writing the note down. This is also inefficient since you could lose the paper in which you have written the note. Save yourself from all this trouble and take a snapshot of it instead. It would only take you a few seconds to take a photo of it, and to save the photo on your smartphone’s gallery.
8. Cut out on the small talk
Stop wasting your time on all of the boring, same old small talks. Here’s a tip: Get to the point! Doing so could save you more time for actually making a conversation that’s really meaningful and worthwhile.
I strongly believe that if you want to be successful, you MUST network with successful people. If you network with other mediocre people, the topics that you talk about will be mediocre. However, if you mix with other successful people, the topics of your conversation will be about business, success and life most of the time. So choose the right person to mix with.
9. Download e-books on your phone and read them
If you’re riding the subway or the bus, and have nothing to do but to wait for your stop, here’s a great tip you could use. Download e-books on your smartphones and read these while you’re waiting. Not only did you make your idle time productive, but you also managed to learn a few more things.
10. Create a to-do list
To avoid spending your time on things that do not matter, create a to-do list that you can follow. By doing so, you could ensure yourself that the tasks you’re doing are really important.
Remember, time is your most important asset in life. We can build wealth and make money, but we cannot buy time. The time that we have lost will be gone forever. So use your time wisely and don’t waste it on things that don’t matter. You don’t want to regret after 3 years looking back from today.