Shorter Version
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We all waste time- every single one of us. Whether you’re managing a demanding career, caring for your family, or simply trying to fit everything into your day, it’s easy to lose time to distractions, interruptions, and habits you don’t even realize are consuming your attention.
The goal isn’t to become perfectly productive. It’s to become more intentional about where your time, attention, and energy go.
Why do we do it?
Wasting time is a combination of factors that go hand in hand: poor time management, digital distractions, difficulty focusing, overcommitting, unhealthy habits, and procrastination. Learning to waste less time starts with identifying which of these is getting in your way.
Poor time management can be anything from not following a schedule to spending time on too many low-priority tasks. It can also be allowing unimportant things to consume a disproportionate amount of your time.
Bad habits include checking email constantly or allowing interruptions from coworkers, text messages, phone notifications, or social media scrolling.
Difficulty focusing can be related to these same habits, but energy also plays a role. When you’re well-rested and energized, concentrating is generally easier. When you’re exhausted, hungry, stressed, or mentally drained, even simple tasks can feel much harder. Your brain is like a car engine with a dead battery – it just won’t turn over.
Overcommitting often comes from wanting to help others, please people, or avoid missing out. Saying yes to every meeting, event, or request leaves less time and energy for what actually matters to you.
Procrastination is simply avoiding the task at hand. This usually happens because it’s unpleasant, boring, seemingly difficult, or you don’t know where to begin.
Longer Version
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Tips and tricks to stop wasting time
Here are 5 ways to finally stop wasting time.
1. Gather some data
How can you decide where to spend your time if you don’t know where it’s going?
One of my favorite strategies is to use a Daily Hours Log. Instead of using it to schedule your time, use it to track how you’re actually spending it.
For at least three days, write down everything you do in 30-minute increments. Include eating, sleeping, showering, working, exercising, social media, television, and anything else that takes up your day. Writing it down can make patterns much easier to see.
After three days, you should have a better idea of where your time is going and whether you want to make any changes.
You may be surprised by how much time disappears into small activities. For example, spending just 30 minutes a day scrolling social media adds up to more than 182 hours per year.
Before saying, “I never have enough time,” take a look at where your time is actually going.
2. Minimize interruptions
If you really want to stop wasting time, start by turning off the notifications for your emails, social media, and text messages – yes, really.
Do you seriously think you’re going to forget to check?
Unless something is genuinely urgent, you don’t need to respond the moment your phone makes a sound. Try checking electronic communications at designated times instead of allowing notifications to dictate your attention.
Constant interruptions don’t just affect productivity. They can also make it harder to create space for restorative habits such as exercise, nutritious meals, adequate sleep, and stress management.
I haven’t had notifications turned on for years, and I don’t miss the constant “ping” or the adrenaline hit that comes with every new alert.
Being constantly on your emails and electronic communication takes up enormous bandwidth and may crowd out the mental space for your next brilliant idea.
3. Learn to prioritize
Most of us are overcommitted.
FOMO, perfectionism, and the desire to help others can make it difficult to say no. But every commitment takes time and energy away from something else.
Learn to spend your time like money: invest it in what matters to you.
Before committing to something, ask yourself:
- Is this activity important to me?
- Does it support my goals?
- Is this the best use of my time and energy?
- Am I saying yes because I genuinely want to, or because I feel obligated?
Learning to say no doesn’t make you selfish. It allows you to be more intentional about the commitments you choose.
Remember, no one is going to love you more or less simply because you do what they want.
4. Stop multitasking to stop wasting time
We often think multitasking makes us more productive, but trying to do several things at once can make it harder to focus.
A study conducted at Stanford University shows that multitasking adds stress to our daily lives and negatively affects our mood, motivation, and productivity.
In reality, what we call multitasking is often just rapidly switching our attention from one task to another. Every switch requires your brain to refocus.
Your brain needs time to organize your thoughts, and trying to focus on too many things at once slows the process down. Think I’m kidding? Notice how your computer or phone runs with multiple browser windows or apps open.
5. Stop procrastinating
We’ve all done it.
We put it off. Push it back. Wait. Hope. Agonize. And in the eleventh hour, at the last moment, or when we can’t stand to live with it any longer, we finally get it done! And most of the time, we wish we had started sooner.
When you procrastinate, you often end up spending even more mental energy thinking about the task without actually completing it.
A trick I like to use to stop procrastinating is to ask myself:
“What is the obstacle here?”
Does it feel overwhelming? Do I not know the next step? Am I too tired? Hungry? Am I avoiding confrontation? Check in with yourself, figure out what is going on, and then address the root cause. It’s far easier than just trying to push through it.
This is especially important when you’re already dealing with the physical or emotional demands of a health challenge. Permit yourself to recognize when your energy is limited rather than treating every difficult day as a failure of discipline.
Actionable Steps
- Get the facts: Track your time for a few days using a notebook or an app. Look for patterns and identify activities that aren’t adding value.
- Minimize interruptions: Turn off electronic notifications to give yourself uninterrupted blocks of time to work, rest, exercise, or be present.
- Learn to say “No”: Before saying yes to something, ask whether it supports your goals or adds another obligation.“No, thank you” is a complete sentence.
- Let go of the multitasking myth: I also jokingly call this the “Stand or Sit Rule” – you can stand, or you can sit, but not at the same time! You can really only do one thing at a time, so cut yourself some slack. You’ll also minimize the time it takes you to refocus.
- Give yourself a break: You are not a machine. Recognize procrastination when it rears its head and find out what’s going on. Plan. Start big projects well in advance, take things slower, and be realistic.
This article was originally written by Hunter Phoenix for Guide, Inc. and was updated for use by Meakin Metabolic Care by Aubrey Christofferson.
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