We’re all capable of wasting time, whether that’s because we’re enjoying a day of Netflix binges at the weekend or are procrastinating to delay having to do an inevitable chore.

However, there’s a big difference between killing a bit of time to stave off boredom and wasting so much time that you miss out on opportunities that could have been life-changing!

Let’s run through some of the most obvious signals that you aren’t using your time to your best advantage – and what to do about it.

Are You Wasting Time on the Wrong Things?

1. You Have Nothing to Look Forward to

There is nothing worse than ignoring potential and waiting for life to happen to you. Each of us is responsible for making life choices. While sometimes they are hard, choosing to do nothing is never a solution if you aren’t happy.

Say you’re single and feel lonely. If you want to change that, you need to get out of the house, join a dating site, meet up with that friend. Do something, anything, to stimulate a response from the universe rather than hoping against hope it’s going to deliver without any proactive effort on your part!

Harsh but true. If you wake up each day with a bleak outlook and don’t have anything good on the horizon, it’s time to re-evaluate how you are spending your days and stop wasting time on the things that aren’t serving you.

2. Settling for ‘Just about OK’

Realistically, we don’t expect to be joyously delighted with our lives every second. Real-life isn’t a Hollywood movie, you know!

Still, there is joy out there for the taking, and if you’re spending time on a job, friendship, activity, or life that isn’t fulfilling your desires or meeting your aspirations, it is all too easy to assume that it’s as good as it gets.

Yep, life is effort! But, if you never try new things, don’t put in any energy, and waste your precious time on the status quo, even if it’s nowhere near where you want to be, you’ll need to put the work in to rekindle your spark.

3. Work, Work, Work

Careers matter. Paying our bills matters. Being successful, professional, and competent matters.

But it isn’t the only thing that does.

All too often, we waste our time on our careers, often for the smallest of pay rises, or non-existent recognition, without realizing that the rest of our life opportunities are passing us by.

There is so much of the world to explore, from romance to kindness, from charity to travel, and if all you do, day in and day out, is work, you aren’t allowing yourself the opportunity to reach your full potential.

Working to live is a necessity, as far as financial stability demands. However, if you spend all of your time living to work, you will never get that time back to spend elsewhere.

4. Living in a Land of Make-Believe

I love a little daydream now and again! There is absolutely nothing wrong with having your private fantasies or imagining what your life would look like if you had taken the path less traveled.

Still, if you spend 99% of your time wishing and wanting and can’t put those dreams into action, you are likely wasting your life when you could have been chasing your deepest desires.

Taking a risk and putting yourself out there can go wrong, admittedly. However, we all get our allocated number of years, and if we don’t recognize how precious they are, we might find out all too late that that wasted time hasn’t added up to much.

5. Always Having an Excuse

Believe it or not, people aren’t inherently lazy! We don’t want to be wasting time on dull things that don’t tap into our capacity for happiness, but we can slip into a pattern of making excuses for ourselves to avoid making that leap of faith.

If you find yourself always talking about applying for that job, going on that date, or taking that trip, but there’s repeatedly some banal reason you can’t, you’re probably wasting your time overthinking, instead of doing those things that set your soul on fire!

6. Relying on Technology for a Social Life

TV and smartphones are designed for wasting time. The whole point of digital entertainment is to give us something interesting to watch when we don’t have anything else to do.

Watch out for signs that you are wasting way too much time playing mindless games on your phone or scrolling through endless series links.

Being unable to put your phone down, waking up to read your notifications, or repeatedly spending hours at a time slumped in front of the TV are all red flags that you are letting technology consume you instead of the other way around.

We’re all unique, and for you, something that another person perceives as a waste of time might be precious. Still, it is vital to consider that we all have limited years on the planet, and we should be cautious about letting things run their course that don’t get us closer to our goals.

Be bold, be decisive, and be brave – and you will quickly learn how to stop wasting your time on the wrong things and take action to make every day count.


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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Mitch Bray

    I love this article. I see no problem with the ocassionial binge watch, but if you do that day ina nd day out, then I think that you’re headed toward the wrong path. I will sometimes watch two our three movies, but don’t want to turn it into an everyday event. As a writer, I ave something to look forward to and that makes me feel proud. I also love reading and that, as a writer, I find my hobby of reading rewarding. However, having been born with cerebral palsy, I never learned to drive so I do sor of rely on Facebook to keep in touch with people. But I love meeting people in person. One of my goals is to meet up with my best friend whom I have not seen in person since I was eight years old. God be praised for technology such as social media and the phone for helping me keep in touch with her.

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