Wasting the Biggest Time Wasters of All Time!
May 7th, 2008 | by Jeniffer |
What are your biggest time wasters?
If you are anything like me, you probably spend lots of time several times each day checking emails, reading emails, responding to emails, and deleting emails. I know, it’s always, “It’ll just take a second!”, but before you know it, that second has turned into half an hour has turned into one hour has turned into several hours. Perhaps not at one stretch, but if you were to add up all the time you spend on your emails, I bet you’d be surprised by just how much time gets swallowed by them.
One possible solution to this: set a certain time of the day for checking emails, responding to emails, reading emails: all of the stuff mentioned above.
Also, send emails out to your friends, asking that those chain-letter emails never find their way to your inbox. They’re annoying at best, and serve no known purpose in the universe.
So get rid of them before they reach you.
Also, let it be known that you will get to your emails at a certain time, and if possible, on a certain day.
You can set up an autoresponder advising emailers that you are unavailable at the moment, but will get to their emails when you get the chance. If it is important, they should have an alternate way to reach you, such as via telephone, or pager.
But only if it is important.
Another huge time waster with emails is having several email accounts.
It’s ok to have them, but have the emails sent from each of them to one account, such as your Gmail account, which can also allow you to label and archive them, which is a feature of Gmail I like.
Channel Surfing
It is possible to waste an entire evening attempting to find something good enough that you actually would want to watch it, on television.
I know this, because in the bad old days when I actually did watch T.V., that is often what I did.
Why not record shows that you like, and watch them when you have the time?
Or buy a series of your favorite program on DVD, and do the same?
At the very least, get a Television guide, and learn when the programs worth watching to you are on.
You can save yourself literally hours of time potentially wasted.
Or do what I did, and simply stop watching television.
The only times I watch it now, are when I am watching Monster Trucks with my two year old son, because he absolutely loves them, and I wouldn’t want to miss the expression on his face when one leaps into the air and the covering flies off the body, or the wheels break off and they keep right on driving. Yah, that is worth watching!
News Programs
Some people absolutely love to watch news on television, listen to it on the radio, and read endless streams of it on the Internet. It that’s you, then skip this part.
If that is not you, and you still want to keep up to date on newsworthy subjects which interest you, you can subscribe to Alerts, such as Google Alerts, so you will not miss a thing you are interested in knowing.
I found when I used to pay attention to the news every day that it would depress me, bringing me down in energy and enthusiasm. so I stopped watching and listening.
My husband is happy to go over every sordid detail he learns about, making Alerts unnecessary for me.
Perhaps a family member or a friend can keep you updated (if they’re like my husband that’ll be whether you want them to or not!).
Social Sites, such as Facebook
I love Facebook, but I find I spend more time on there than I do on this site, so I have to cut back.
With friends contacting me there, Scrabulous games to play, new applications to add–well, let’s just say it is time to cut down.
I have decided that only once per day, at the very most (I’m shooting for once every other day eventually!) will I be going on Facebook.
I’ve just got too many other things to do!
What are your biggest time wasters, and how do you cut back on them? Why not share? Comments, tips, and stories are always most welcome!
