15 Ways You Are Wasting Time During the Day (And How to Stop)
In this article, we’ll examine all the ways that you’re wasting time, and how to stop doing so… starting right now.
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1. Track Your Bad Email Habits
You’re probably wasting time on email without realizing it, whether it’s taking too much time to draft your messages, allowing your email threads to spiral to unmanageable proportions, or allowing unproductive contacts to interfere with your day.
We spend 6.3 hours a day checking email, so it’s almost certain that a large chunk of wasted time is happening in your inbox. 3 The only way to tell for sure is to use an analytics app such as EmailAnalytics to analyze your email habits and pinpoint where you’re wasting the most time.
Once you recognize your problem areas, come up with a plan for how to address it. For example, you might resolve to start fewer conversation threads, or set a 10-minute limit for yourself when drafting a new email.
2. Just Say No
It’s hard to say “no” to anything, whether it’s a new assignment from a boss, or a social gathering from one of your best friends. Unfortunately, each “yes” you give is a new segment of time you’ll have to spend doing something that may or may not be beneficial for you in the long run.
Saying “no” could free up hours of your time with each instance, and as long as you’re polite and respectful, there likely won’t be any consequences. As an added bonus, saying no can empower you to make fewer accommodations, and possibly command more respect from your boss and teammates.
3. Make Faster Decisions
You spend more time in a state of indecision than you realize. You might have an internal debate over whether to start that project now, at 4 pm, or just wait to start it tomorrow morning.
You might not take action on a task because you know there’s a possibility you’ll delegate it in the future.
In any case, every minute you spend thinking about your decision is a potential minute wasted—assuming there’s no new information to consider. Aim to make faster decisions, and you’ll cut this time waste out of your life immediately.
4. Set Limits and Stick to Them
How often do you check your social media feeds throughout the day, or find yourself wandering to that mobile game you downloaded?
Chances are, you waste more time on these intentionally time-sucking apps than you know. Fortunately, there are ways to set time limits for yourself so you can reduce this time to a fixed, reasonable figure.
If you use an iOS device, you can use Apple’s Guided Access to restrict the accessibility of other apps on your phone, or if you’re on Android, you can use an app like AppDetox to set careful limits for specific apps you know to waste your time.
5. Take Plenty of Breaks
In the middle of your workday, it’s natural to think that spending just one more hour on work, rather than taking a lunch break, will result in higher productivity—but that’s not necessarily the case.
Working too long without a break will make it harder for you to focus on work, which means a task that ordinarily takes 30 minutes might take 45 minutes or even longer.
Research suggests the ideal work-break ratio is working for 52 minutes, then breaking for 17—but this is going to vary based on the type of work you’re doing and, of course, your individual preferences.
The bottom line is that you need to take more breaks throughout the day if you want to make the most of your working hours; otherwise, you’ll waste energy.
6. Flip Complaints Into Action
Everybody complains from time to time, whether it’s a cathartic venting session or a bid to gain social support for a common problem.
Unfortunately, complaining is a poor way to spend your time; complaints generally won’t make you feel better, and won’t do anything to change the situation that frustrated you in the first place. Instead of complaining, create an action item.
For example, if you’re angry that you’re stuck in traffic, make a mental note to leave for work earlier tomorrow. If the deli gets your order wrong, opt to try a different deli next time. If your app isn’t working, switch to a different task temporarily.
7. Disable Distracting Notifications
Distractions may seem like they only waste a few seconds of your time, but research shows it takes more than 23 minutes to fully recover your focus after getting distracted. 4
Notifications from things like email and instant message platforms, regardless of their intended purpose, will almost certainly pull you away from whatever task you’re focusing on.
Consider turning them off; you might be offline for a few hours, but you’ll get so much more done. Depending on your workplace culture, you may need to send a proactive heads-up to let people know when and for how long you’re going offline.
8. Maximize Your Commute
Unless you’re working from home, you’re spending time commuting every morning.
With the average commute in the United States being roughly 25 minutes each way, that probably means you’re wasting around 5 hours a week just in necessary travel. Since there’s no way to get rid of that time, your best option here is to maximize that time.
Taking public transportation could free up your hands and attention so you could focus on work on your way in (and save you money at the same time).
Riding your bike to work could save you a trip to the gym later. And if you’re stuck driving, you can take hands-free conference calls or catch up on audiobooks to make the most of every minute.
9. Skip Meetings
Meetings are prime opportunities for time waste because they include so many people, are often poorly organized, and take up a significant portion of your day.
The average worker spends a third of their time in meetings, and that time is often spent unproductively. If you spend 9 hours a day working, that equates to 3 hours a day in meetings, or 15 hours per week.
Imagine if you cut the number of meetings you attended in half, or if you reduced your hour-long meetings to 30-minute meetings—you’d instantly save 7.5 hours every week.
Turn your meetings into email updates to keep information flowing.
10. Cut Your Losses
Human beings are subject to the sunk cost fallacy; it’s a cognitive bias that makes us reluctant to cut our losses on projects and battles that we’re already heavily invested in.
For example, let’s say you’ve spent 10 hours working on a new advertising strategy, but it’s not seeing above-average returns.
Logically, you’d be better off switching to a new strategy, but because you’ve already invested so much time into it, you might be tempted to spend even more in an effort to recoup your losses.
Learning how to cut those losses and get out early can save you countless hours—and thousands of dollars.
11. Delegate Tasks to Others
Many modern professionals are reluctant to delegate, under the pretense that training someone to do the task would take longer than doing the task yourself.
This may be true, but it’s a short-term strategy; training someone to do a frequently recurring task is an investment that will spare you from ever having to do that task again.
You may take a time loss in training today, but you’ll avoid time losses indefinitely in the future. Don’t be afraid to delegate your low-priority tasks if it means getting more time to spend on what you do best.
12. Do One Thing at a Time
Multi-tasking is demonstrably proven to harm your performance in each task you try to coordinate; in other words, doing one task at a time ends up being a more effective option.
It may seem like managing two separate windows at the same time is the most productive thing to do, but it’s putting undue stress on your brain and is probably decreasing the quality of your work in both areas.
Instead, focus on just one task at a time; you’ll make fewer mistakes, and will probably end up finishing both tasks faster anyway.
13. Declutter Your Space
Whether you manage a physical workspace or all your important files are digitally stored, organization matters.
If it takes you an extra 5 minutes every time you need to track down a piece of information, you won’t be able to get much done throughout the day.
Taking an hour to systematically reorganize your workspace will save you far more than an hour of time in the long run. And, if you’re still working with paper filing systems, consider switching to a cloud-based program; it’s hard to beat the efficiency of a digitally assisted search.
14. Lower the Bar
The common advice is to “shoot for the moon,” aiming for high objectives to motivate yourself to perform better.
But constantly struggling to achieve these high goals could be counterproductive.
Not only will you spend time on tasks that aren’t optimized for your own abilities, you could end up damaging your own morale when you don’t achieve them; after all, the real secret to happiness is setting modest expectations, both for yourself and the people around you.
Setting lower, more achievable goals will help you use your time more effectively, and allow you to set more realistic timelines.
15. Mind Your Phrasing
When you claim that you’re “busy,” you probably aren’t thinking about all the tiny responsibilities that make up your day, or all the optional tasks you elect to take on (either unwittingly or out of habit).
Changing your phrasing can help draw your attention to these micro-time wasters. Instead of saying “I’m too busy” for a given task or opportunity, say, “that’s not a priority for me right now.”
It’s a subtle psychological trick that will help you realize where your own priorities lie, and draw attention to the daily habits and routines that are taking up more time than you notice.
Are you really too busy?
You’re the one setting your schedule.
Reclaim Your Time
Many of these strategies require you to change a habit, or make new ones, which isn’t easy no matter how committed you are to solving your time-waste problem.
Fortunately, improving your awareness of these problems is half the battle, and any steps you take to improve those problems are going to have a measurable effect on both your productivity, and your work-life balance.
If you’re having trouble getting started, start with just one of the tips above and try to optimize your working style to improve it over the course of the next week.
There’s no shame in a gradual approach, and it might ultimately be better for helping you retain positive habits. So stop wasting time today; you’ll be much better off.
Read more
1. Track Your Bad Email Habits
You’re probably wasting time on email without realizing it, whether it’s taking too much time to draft your messages, allowing your email threads to spiral to unmanageable proportions, or allowing unproductive contacts to interfere with your day.
We spend 6.3 hours a day checking email, so it’s almost certain that a large chunk of wasted time is happening in your inbox. 3 The only way to tell for sure is to use an analytics app such as EmailAnalytics to analyze your email habits and pinpoint where you’re wasting the most time.
Once you recognize your problem areas, come up with a plan for how to address it. For example, you might resolve to start fewer conversation threads, or set a 10-minute limit for yourself when drafting a new email.
2. Just Say No
It’s hard to say “no” to anything, whether it’s a new assignment from a boss, or a social gathering from one of your best friends. Unfortunately, each “yes” you give is a new segment of time you’ll have to spend doing something that may or may not be beneficial for you in the long run.
Saying “no” could free up hours of your time with each instance, and as long as you’re polite and respectful, there likely won’t be any consequences. As an added bonus, saying no can empower you to make fewer accommodations, and possibly command more respect from your boss and teammates.
3. Make Faster Decisions
You spend more time in a state of indecision than you realize. You might have an internal debate over whether to start that project now, at 4 pm, or just wait to start it tomorrow morning.
You might not take action on a task because you know there’s a possibility you’ll delegate it in the future.
In any case, every minute you spend thinking about your decision is a potential minute wasted—assuming there’s no new information to consider. Aim to make faster decisions, and you’ll cut this time waste out of your life immediately.
4. Set Limits and Stick to Them
How often do you check your social media feeds throughout the day, or find yourself wandering to that mobile game you downloaded?
Chances are, you waste more time on these intentionally time-sucking apps than you know. Fortunately, there are ways to set time limits for yourself so you can reduce this time to a fixed, reasonable figure.
If you use an iOS device, you can use Apple’s Guided Access to restrict the accessibility of other apps on your phone, or if you’re on Android, you can use an app like AppDetox to set careful limits for specific apps you know to waste your time.
5. Take Plenty of Breaks
In the middle of your workday, it’s natural to think that spending just one more hour on work, rather than taking a lunch break, will result in higher productivity—but that’s not necessarily the case.
Working too long without a break will make it harder for you to focus on work, which means a task that ordinarily takes 30 minutes might take 45 minutes or even longer.
Research suggests the ideal work-break ratio is working for 52 minutes, then breaking for 17—but this is going to vary based on the type of work you’re doing and, of course, your individual preferences.
The bottom line is that you need to take more breaks throughout the day if you want to make the most of your working hours; otherwise, you’ll waste energy.
6. Flip Complaints Into Action
Everybody complains from time to time, whether it’s a cathartic venting session or a bid to gain social support for a common problem.
Unfortunately, complaining is a poor way to spend your time; complaints generally won’t make you feel better, and won’t do anything to change the situation that frustrated you in the first place. Instead of complaining, create an action item.
For example, if you’re angry that you’re stuck in traffic, make a mental note to leave for work earlier tomorrow. If the deli gets your order wrong, opt to try a different deli next time. If your app isn’t working, switch to a different task temporarily.
7. Disable Distracting Notifications
Distractions may seem like they only waste a few seconds of your time, but research shows it takes more than 23 minutes to fully recover your focus after getting distracted. 4
Notifications from things like email and instant message platforms, regardless of their intended purpose, will almost certainly pull you away from whatever task you’re focusing on.
Consider turning them off; you might be offline for a few hours, but you’ll get so much more done. Depending on your workplace culture, you may need to send a proactive heads-up to let people know when and for how long you’re going offline.
8. Maximize Your Commute
Unless you’re working from home, you’re spending time commuting every morning.
With the average commute in the United States being roughly 25 minutes each way, that probably means you’re wasting around 5 hours a week just in necessary travel. Since there’s no way to get rid of that time, your best option here is to maximize that time.
Taking public transportation could free up your hands and attention so you could focus on work on your way in (and save you money at the same time).
Riding your bike to work could save you a trip to the gym later. And if you’re stuck driving, you can take hands-free conference calls or catch up on audiobooks to make the most of every minute.
9. Skip Meetings
Meetings are prime opportunities for time waste because they include so many people, are often poorly organized, and take up a significant portion of your day.
The average worker spends a third of their time in meetings, and that time is often spent unproductively. If you spend 9 hours a day working, that equates to 3 hours a day in meetings, or 15 hours per week.
Imagine if you cut the number of meetings you attended in half, or if you reduced your hour-long meetings to 30-minute meetings—you’d instantly save 7.5 hours every week.
Turn your meetings into email updates to keep information flowing.
10. Cut Your Losses
Human beings are subject to the sunk cost fallacy; it’s a cognitive bias that makes us reluctant to cut our losses on projects and battles that we’re already heavily invested in.
For example, let’s say you’ve spent 10 hours working on a new advertising strategy, but it’s not seeing above-average returns.
Logically, you’d be better off switching to a new strategy, but because you’ve already invested so much time into it, you might be tempted to spend even more in an effort to recoup your losses.
Learning how to cut those losses and get out early can save you countless hours—and thousands of dollars.
11. Delegate Tasks to Others
Many modern professionals are reluctant to delegate, under the pretense that training someone to do the task would take longer than doing the task yourself.
This may be true, but it’s a short-term strategy; training someone to do a frequently recurring task is an investment that will spare you from ever having to do that task again.
You may take a time loss in training today, but you’ll avoid time losses indefinitely in the future. Don’t be afraid to delegate your low-priority tasks if it means getting more time to spend on what you do best.
12. Do One Thing at a Time
Multi-tasking is demonstrably proven to harm your performance in each task you try to coordinate; in other words, doing one task at a time ends up being a more effective option.
It may seem like managing two separate windows at the same time is the most productive thing to do, but it’s putting undue stress on your brain and is probably decreasing the quality of your work in both areas.
Instead, focus on just one task at a time; you’ll make fewer mistakes, and will probably end up finishing both tasks faster anyway.
13. Declutter Your Space
Whether you manage a physical workspace or all your important files are digitally stored, organization matters.
If it takes you an extra 5 minutes every time you need to track down a piece of information, you won’t be able to get much done throughout the day.
Taking an hour to systematically reorganize your workspace will save you far more than an hour of time in the long run. And, if you’re still working with paper filing systems, consider switching to a cloud-based program; it’s hard to beat the efficiency of a digitally assisted search.
14. Lower the Bar
The common advice is to “shoot for the moon,” aiming for high objectives to motivate yourself to perform better.
But constantly struggling to achieve these high goals could be counterproductive.
Not only will you spend time on tasks that aren’t optimized for your own abilities, you could end up damaging your own morale when you don’t achieve them; after all, the real secret to happiness is setting modest expectations, both for yourself and the people around you.
Setting lower, more achievable goals will help you use your time more effectively, and allow you to set more realistic timelines.
15. Mind Your Phrasing
When you claim that you’re “busy,” you probably aren’t thinking about all the tiny responsibilities that make up your day, or all the optional tasks you elect to take on (either unwittingly or out of habit).
Changing your phrasing can help draw your attention to these micro-time wasters. Instead of saying “I’m too busy” for a given task or opportunity, say, “that’s not a priority for me right now.”
It’s a subtle psychological trick that will help you realize where your own priorities lie, and draw attention to the daily habits and routines that are taking up more time than you notice.
Are you really too busy?
You’re the one setting your schedule.
Reclaim Your Time
Many of these strategies require you to change a habit, or make new ones, which isn’t easy no matter how committed you are to solving your time-waste problem.
Fortunately, improving your awareness of these problems is half the battle, and any steps you take to improve those problems are going to have a measurable effect on both your productivity, and your work-life balance.
If you’re having trouble getting started, start with just one of the tips above and try to optimize your working style to improve it over the course of the next week.
There’s no shame in a gradual approach, and it might ultimately be better for helping you retain positive habits. So stop wasting time today; you’ll be much better off.
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