Ask The Readers: Identify Your Biggest Time Sinks
You guys really stepped up to the plate last week when I asked for Your Best Tip To Waste Money from which we created the Experienced Wasters: 100 Ways To Blow Your Debt Through The Wall.
Many people related to and said they would take action when they saw the final product. What’s the reason for this? It’s because a large group of people gave the article many different view points.
Together we were able to touch a larger audience and attract even more new readers to the site. Seems like a win-win situation to me.
Let’s take a look at a topic that’s even more important than money. This time we’re talking about TIME! You’ve heard that time is money, and that without time there is no use for money, so let’s see where we’re throwing away this valuable resource.
Identify Your Biggest Time Sinks
Use these questions as a suggestion for how to tell us about your biggest time sinks. Feel free to tell us any small or large way that you waste time.
- Where do you waste the most time?
- Which activities are the biggest waste of time?
- Which people are the biggest waste of time?
- Which time of the day is the least productive for you?
I’m very proud to have such an awesome group of readers. I’ll start off the first Time Sink and you join me in the comments section below!
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Posted by Alex Shalman in Ask The Readers | March 21, 2008 | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumble | Print | 12 comments
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As you can tell by the picture I think sleep is a big waste of time. Not to say that 6-8 hours a day is not only healthy but necessary for our minds and bodies to function properly. However, some people sleep way more than that, and not because they have to but because they’re not taking good enough care of their bodies to have an abundance of energy and vitality.
Telephone calls with friends and family I love to talk to have been my biggest time sink lately. We share stories and laugh and basically yap for 2-4 hours.
Once a week, no biggie. But 2-3 convos like this and I’ve lost a work day or two. Not wasted, but surely lost. I really can’t afford that kind of idle time…my blog is picking up traffic and I need to spend most of my workday replying to comments and and research and writing and whatnot!
So glad you asked this…I hadn’t realized how much time was slipping by. I’ll need to set a timer or something!
~CC
Alex:
I was told a long time ago that if we could find 15 extra minutes a day (that’s right, JUST 15 MINUTES A DAY), that would give us 91 extra hours a year, which works out to 2 work weeks (unless you’re like me – and probably you, so that might just be one work week – grin).
Can you imagine having 2 extra weeks a year? Just stop wasting 15 minutes a day and you’ll have it.
Mr. Positioning
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA & Professional Motivational Speaker
I think sleep is good. I have never been able to function with just 6-8 hours a night. As far as wasting time goes I thinking anyone who sends a lot of text messages wastes a lot of time.
It’s amazing what small changes could do over the long run. I just calculated that if I cut my hair once a month instead of every 2 weeks, and trim my beard myself instead of having the barber do it I’ll save $66 a month or nearly $800 a year. I don’t know about you, but I’m a graduate student and that’s a lot of money. I do like my haircuts, so I think it’s an excellent exercise in discipline. It will feel like an extra treat to go get my haircut, instead of just something I do routinely because it’s the second friday.
I’d agree in general about text messaging, but for someone who can spend hours on the phone talking about books, news, weather, family, and everything ekse, text messages are a quick cheap alternative to keeping in touch.
Alex:
You raise and excellent point. Little things can add up. Seriously, I’m not so sure anyone would notice if you waited 4 weeks instead of 2 to get a haircut (except probably you) …
As for trimming your beard yourself, many men do that anyway.
When you become rich and famous, then you can pay other people to do these things for you . . .
Take care.
Mr Positioning
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA, Author & Professional Motivational Speaker
How about being stuck in traffic? I used to work across town and spend 2.5 hours a day going to and from work. Now I live 10 minutes away and it’s great. It’s amazing how big a difference that makes.
I waste the majority of my time going through emails at my home office. I can’t really say any specific person is the biggest waste of time, or even a group of people.
My least productive time of day is usually early afternoon… around 1-3pm. It’s a time of day where I want to do stuff, but my motivation sinks a bit.
Reading RSS feeds everyday.
I love the feeds, but when I get into it, I can watch 2 hours or more fly by in a blink.
Surfing the net at work is, by far, the biggest waste of time. When I started blogging, I cut a lot of that out. I used to check Drudge Report, Espn.com, and other sites, and I saw that I was wasting a whole bunch of time.
Emails wasted the most of my time. Mostly are forwarded from friends and are junk mail.