15 Things You Wish For

Time is slipping through your fingers. You had so many plans and things to implement, your calendar requires you to cross out the outstanding tasks. You often end your day feeling that there are so many things you want to do, but you have run out of time. Things You Wish.

Trying to stuff a million tasks into one day, we start to suffer ourselves, our relationships and our body.

Let's look at the specifics.

24 hours a day:

• 24 hours
• 1 440 minutes
• 86,400 seconds

Quite a lot.

It's good to learn to use these minutes properly. Sometimes it is enough to give up one activity, which is a waste of time to gain time for something important and valuable to us, something that will translate into great results after some time - more money, knowledge, more opportunities. It is worth fighting for, the more so that the popular "time thieves" are not so necessary in our lives.

Here is my subjective list of things that people waste precious seconds, minutes and sometimes hours on every day.

1. Social media (Facebook, instagram, snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn).

By using these portals (without specifying the reason for opening them) you can be sure that time will pass through your fingers. You know it for sure, you only turn it on for a moment, here is a movie, here a few comments, beautiful photos of friends, an offer and an hour has passed. This goes for all social media. Each website is designed to keep people interested and stay active and engaged for as long as possible. Social media algorithms are working better and better and more and more effectively match the content presented to the interests of the recipient. And for us, recipients, it is more and more difficult to log out.

How to deal with this?

Determine the purpose of opening the application, what to check and do. Do this and log out. If you are visiting for entertainment, determine how much time you can spend on it and set the timer, and after calling it, log out. If, after all, it is difficult for you to disconnect from social media, you can install an application that blocks access to websites of your choice at times you set ( SelfControl, StayFocusd).

It is also worth uninstalling the excess of applications from the phone, because nothing takes your time as much as incoming notifications, which only take you away from what you are doing at the moment.

2. TELEVISION

Another time absorber, you only turn on for a moment and it turns out that the hours are passing by. You watch your favorite program, and during the commercials you jump through the channels and look for other interesting content, and so half an hour, another half, and it turns out that you spent a lot of time watching. However, you haven't watched anything from start to finish.

Some people turn on the TV right after entering the apartment, claiming that they like “when it's playing, but not watching at all. It is very distracting, it extends the time of performing even tasks that do not require concentration, such as preparing meals or dressing.

How to deal with this?

Decide that you do not turn on the TV, you can hide the remote control, disconnect the transmitting antenna, make it difficult to start it in any way. However, if you like to watch certain series or programs on TV, set aside time to watch them and turn on the TV at the time your designated program starts.

3. Habitual checking of the mailbox

When starting work, you turn on your e-mail box and from time to time check whether a new message has appeared. It's just like with multitasking, which was fashionable some time ago, you think that you are so cool because you can do two things at the same time, and in fact, the time you spend on dealing with these two things is longer than if you did them one after the other at the appointed time. Just because someone has a case for you doesn't mean that you need to be informed about it at the moment (unless that's your job). By reading incoming messages, you make your brain think about many things at once, making it less focused on the task at hand.

How to deal with this?

Do not turn on your e-mail box while performing important tasks. Set aside time during the day to review and reply to incoming messages. You can even set up an auto responder in which you inform senders that you will read the content of the email within a certain time and reply as soon as possible.

4. No list of tasks, work plan

When starting a day or a project, it is worth creating an action plan that includes steps, a sketch of the end result that you want to achieve by completing the work. Working with a list that is in view and available at any time, you have a ready map of activities for the day. You protect yourself from wasting time figuring out what to do now, where to start. You don't waste time doing unnecessary things that aren't part of what you are working on. Finally, it prevents you from forgetting something important that you were supposed to do on a given day.

How to deal with this?

After the end of the day (work or evening), make a list of tasks for the next day, remembering to assign a priority task. Before starting any project, something bigger in life, make a plan of action. Draw a plan into small steps, set the order of their implementation and set deadlines.

5. Procrastination, or articalponing matters

What a common phenomenon among students, everything at the last possible moment: studying for the exam, writing a final thesis, preparing a project. Later this habit goes into the world with people and they practice it in their professional lives. articalponing something will not make it disappear. Having put off important matters, you take away the chance to move the project forward, cause stress and lead to a situation that there is little time for the task to be completed, and this is a simple way to errors, mistakes and mediocrity.

How to deal with this?

One simple piece of advice that works for me is make up your mind and don't argue with yourself. Make a decision that this is something important and you want to do it, and then keep your mind out of the way as it offers up tons of reasons why you shouldn't do it. You just sit down and start doing it, the first minutes (hours) can be tough, and then just like everything goes on.

6. No morning rituals

It may sound like a cliche, but a certain sequence of actions in the morning can either make the day effective or cause things to go wrong as it was supposed to. There is a lot to write about morning rituals, it is worth considering which actions or activities performed in the morning give you energy for work, and which are destructive. As you've probably noticed, delaying getting out of bed has consequences that can ruin your day.

How to deal with this?

First of all, consider what your perfect morning should be, what time you should get up, what to do, what to eat, what to tell someone close to you and what time to go to work (or start work if you work from home). Observe yourself and notice the behaviors or factors that have a destructive effect on you in the morning, and then avoid them. If, for example, you are nervous in the morning that you have nothing to wear and you feel bad in the sets in which you leave for work, learn to plan the day before what you will wear and prepare something suitable for yourself.

7. No habit to artical things in place

This, unfortunately, is my bad habit that I have been facing for some time. Maybe you know it too, you use something and then leave it in another (random or not) place, telling yourself that you will need it again, that you will remember that you put it here. Unfortunately, when you need an item, you no longer remember where you put it away and you waste time searching.

How to deal with this?

Everything in the apartment should have a fixed (preferably described) place, then putting items away is intuitive. If you also have this problem, first limit the number of items you have. Secondly, make an action of organizing space, let all similar items have one, and if possible and necessary also a described place. The third piece of advice is to make a habit of putting it back, you have to remember about it and every time you have to leave something in a random place, make yourself put it back where you took it from.

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8. Not completing tasks

You start a task with enthusiasm and energy, and after a few quarters or hours, you feel refused, you lose your enthusiasm, something else appears to be done and you leave the things being done. And so left over repairs left, unfinished works pile up and you get frustrated because they are still on your to-do list and waiting to be completed.

How to deal with this?

Do not start a task if you are not convinced that you can finish it, or break it into smaller steps and focus on individual activities. Don't start a new task until you've finished the previous one.

9. Constant search for needed things, files, photos

You start a task and you have lost a file or a tool you need. You waste time looking for it, and in the course of implementation, you need something else and still look for something.

How to deal with this?

Make a habit of preparing the necessary tools before starting the task, e.g. when you start cooking, take all the ingredients you need on the countertop, if something is missing you have a chance to fill the gaps by going to the store or choose another dish that you are able to prepare from what you have .

10. No idea to use the access time, waiting in a line

Observing people using public transport, I can say that the vast majority of them do not use travel time to / from their place of work or study. People stuck to their mobile phones browse websites and FB, click hearts on Instagram, do not wonder how much they could do by planning this time for something else. Of course, you cannot always afford to read a book, especially when it is crowded, but you can have an audiobook prepared, listen to an interesting podcast or learn new words from a mobile application.

How to deal with this?

Find a way adapted to your lifestyle and needs to effectively use the time spent in public transport or in waiting rooms. You can plan to browse the offers of hotels, carriers (if you have travel plans), you can look for inspiration to spend your free time with loved ones or find interesting recipes for dinner. Do something that serves something in your life during this time. And if you need to relax, stock up on your favorite music and listen to it, instead of straining your eyesight by staring at the phone screen.

11. Work not being here and now

You know what I mean? You get down to work, open a file and start typing something on the keyboard, and suddenly you have a thought in your head that you would eat something, or about vacation, or about the argument the day before yesterday. You are not 100% focused on what you are doing and this is a simple way to extend the task at hand.

How to deal with this?

If you take on a task, and your thoughts are flying away, give yourself 5 minutes to think, dream, get upset, if you need to write down conclusions on a piece of paper (e.g. I will buy flowers for my wife, I haven't done anything wrong, but I don't want it anymore roll longer; look for an offer from a travel agency for a trip to the Alps) and after 5 minutes return to work.

12. Meditation "what others will think?"

This is my favorite waste of time instead of taking the first (and next) step, people sit and wonder what others will think, what others will say. I'll tell you what! People always think something and say something, but are you interested in the opinion of someone you don't care about? By the way, people think much less about others than you think. So do not waste time thinking, if you want to do something, do it, if you fail, at least you will know that it was your decision and you will bear the consequences.

How to deal with this?

Put that argument out of your head. Everyone can think what they want, and let your achievements decide about you.

13. Admitting

How much time is wasted each day complaining. People complain about the government, about taxes, about the weather (whatever it is), about the partner. Waste of time.

How to deal with this?

If you don't like something, think about whether you can change it. If not, accept this state and try to see its positives. If you have control over it, do your best to make the change. You can also use the eraser method. You put a rubber band on your wrist and every time you catch yourself complaining, you gently pull it and release it, which of course causes a slight pain. Apparently, this method is effective in unlearning complaints.

14. Doing everything yourself

A lot of people I meet take it for granted that they will do something on their own. When they undertake an undertaking, they believe that only they can do it and will do it best. Perhaps it will be so, but it is worth calculating how much they could gain by commissioning someone else to perform tasks that they do not know about. I don't mean not to develop. Learn, gain knowledge and competences, but include in your plan time to learn and any mistakes that will occur. Compare this to the cost you would incur by outsourcing tasks to someone else. This is called task delegation, and it is very useful.

How to deal with this?

If you have a problem with this, try a small part of your tasks (preferably simple ones) to someone else, or share your duties with someone else. Do not focus on the fact that someone will do it worse than you would have done it, just look at it in terms of what I gained because someone did it for me.

15. Finding information in the endless

The endless decision-making process is another drain of time and energy. You decide to act, but to start doing something you have to make a lot of decisions (starting with the decision to take action). Being in this situation, you start to analyze and search for information, which is known to be immeasurable. The decision-making process is getting longer, the number of options is growing exponentially, and you can already get a PhD on the topic. The more knowledge you have, the more difficult it is to make a decision.

How to deal with this?

There is a rule in management which says that when making a decision, you will never know all the consequences and you will not know all the possibilities either, but you can make a decision by choosing the first satisfactory option.