Are Any of These Wasting Your Time? (and I’m not referring to social media)

The Intentional Mom Planning System is where you need to start with our incredible collection of product options. It will help you establish the basics for your life & home so you’ll finally have a plan, save yourself time, and go to bed feeling like you accomplished something every day (because you did). Save up to 60% HERE!

So there have been so many times that I’ve talked about ways to maximize your time. Time blocks are great, so is focusing on productivity, and so many more things. But, have you ever stopped to look at the things that might be wasting your time?

I discovered many of the things that were wasting my time without me realizing it by keeping a time log for two days. I was amazed at where my time was going and how skewed my thinking was in where it was going prior to that. All those two minutes here and two minutes there activities really added up.

It is with this in mind that I have six things that might be wasting your time, and I’m not talking about social media.

(this post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you)

Time suckers

These are the needy people in your life. Note: I am not saying that you should not have these people in your life, but I am saying that much of the time, these kinds of people tend to control our time rather than us controlling our own time when it comes to our interaction with them. They may send multiple texts, make several phone calls, or send several emails in a day. Their concerns and needs are usually not urgent, however, but it can be a time waster for you to keep having to address their needs multiple times a day.

Allowing interruptions

Interruptions can appear in a variety of ways including in the example above. Interruptions can be phone calls, texts, and emails, but they can also be kids who want you to drop everything you are doing to cater to them at the drop of a hat. Your kids need you, but there are often times that they interrupt rather than wait for a time that you are able to give them the time and attention they are looking for. There are times when interruptions are urgent matters, but often, they are not and are therefore an interruption. If you feel like you are running around all day only to get nothing done, examine how many things you allowed to interrupt your time.

Waiting on hold

When it comes to getting in touch with businesses and that sort of thing, it often warrants a phone call. Calling for appointments, service calls, and various problems means that we are often stuck waiting on hold. There is virtually nothing we can do about this, however, we can limit the time we spend on hold waiting. My limit is two minutes. If I am stuck waiting longer than that, I hang up and call back. What’s really nice is when they allow you to opt-in for a call back rather than waiting in the queue on hold. If given the choice, go for that every time.

Overthinking things

I hope I’m not the only one guilty of this, and maybe it is just the perfectionist in me, but I tend to overthink things way too much. My brain is constantly on overload because of this, and going around and around with things in my head wastes my time since there is rarely a time that I even accomplish anything – except exhaustion!

Doing unnecessary things

What do I mean by unnecessary? I am referring doing things in an obsessive or even just an unneeded manner…or in a way that is just not conducive to the demands on your time. For example, before my life was as busy as it is now, I used to wash strip the beds and wash the sheets once a week. I would still do this if I could, however, because of the demands on my time I determined that as long as the people who sleep in the sheets are clean, the sheets could probably be washed only twice and month and things would be just fine. And, that proved to be true for me. When my life is in a different season, perhaps I will go back to once a week, but for now, it was something that I determined was unnecessary for me at this point.

Demanding perfection

Yes, I am a recovering perfectionist who still can slip back into those habits at times, but demanding that everything be done to perfection is a bit over the top…and it uses up valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere.

If time is a precious commodity in your life as it is in mine, you could be wasting time that you don’t even realize you’re wasting. If you need more time, make sure you’re not guilty of any of these!