Problem 4 - Wasting Time
Sunday, November 18, 2018 at 18:47 “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked.”
The above quote sums it up very neatly. Wasted time is time in which you don’t do what you ought to do (“work”) or what you want to do (“pleasure”). It is quite different from rest time, which often falls under both of these categories.
Typical examples of wasted time:
- Staring mindlessly into the fire (which is the example Lewis mentions in the book)
- Falling asleep in front of the TV
- Getting mindlessly drunk [Ah, that’s twice I’ve used the word “mindless” in three examples]
- Putting up with something that’s not working properly rather than fixing it
- Finding a heap of trivial tasks to do in order to avoid starting on one important task.
- Drifting around at random unable to decide on something constructive to do
Wasting time is the difference between mindless drifting and taking intentional action. It’s usually quite easy to tell the difference, but the best way to ensure that your action is intentional is to write it down. Writing down your next action forces you to bring your intentional powers into play. As I’ve mentioned often in the past, one of the ways I used to get people out of a state of mental paralysis and back into focus was simply to write a task down - any task - do it, then write another task down and do that. That in fact is the simplest form of No List system. If you find yourself wasting time, the easiest way out of it is to use this exercise.
It’s also the reason that I encourage people who are using a Long List system to put all their trivial tasks on it as well as the more serious stuff. These means you are always acting intentionally, rather than just drifting. Even if you are spending time picking the easy tasks, it is better than drifting - and it is much easier to pick up the serious stuff once your energy has replenished itself.
So remember:
Write it down!
Reader Comments (15)
Thanks Mark....
I think both are equally effective. You should stick to the one you are most used to. Personally I tend to use paper and pen, but that is purely my personal preference.
And falling asleep in front of the TV is surely better than watching it?
I tend to think staring mindlessly at a fire is a healthy thing to do on occasion, but if your daily habit is to sit by the fireplace and just stare, and never get anywhere, that is less than ideal. The same certainly applies to mindless video watching in today's time. Frequently there are much better things to watch [or do besides watching] than whatever you chose, either want more or ought more.
Yes in some cases sleeping by a TV is better than watching, but is that really something you want to do? Surely it would be much better to fall asleep in a bed without a TV going, notwithstanding some people's addiction to TV noises and inabliity to get to sleep apart from them.
I caught myself earlier mindlessly slipping over to this page instead of deliberately. Read those paragraphs and, chagrined, went away until such a time as I would deliberately visit.
I will try the exercise when I want to get out of drifting.
Back to the journal, I write a short note on what I have done each 30 minutes, usually a couple of words eg draft document, or tv or eating etc. At the end of the day I colour in the lines where I have been productive. It then becomes very obvious where my time as gone. My productivity has seen a dramatic increase and the reason I put this down to is I am very cognizant of how my time is being spent or wasted. The guilt factor is amazing!! I now watch very little TV.
<< I now watch very little TV. >>
I watch no live TV. I watch plenty of TV programmes but they are always on iPlayer, Amazon Prime or the like.
That means that I make a conscious decision to put them on my list, and I can control when and for how long I watch them. .
You said "I watch no live TV."
Hahaha! I definitely relate to that.
I listen for the weather because I'm outside quite often.
It's my solace from so many things.
It helps me to distract from very ongoing pain and very real fears.
We both relate to the ongoing fear of cancer living inside us. Oddly, I fear hospitalizations almost as much as the cancer.
Now it's Covid also. Ack!
I truly hope you're doing well.
Like you, I prefer to read the news. I can choose to accept a brief summary or delve deeper.
I haven't watched a current tv show in over a decade except a few pbs/masterpece theater productions.
Am I turning too crotchety in my old age or has their standards fallen?
A true annoyance is when they use current lexicon or use current slang words for period pieces.
Walking is technically doing nothing but it seems to sooth my worries and spark my senses.
At night when I gaze at the sky, somehow dying seems so natural. I, too, am a speck of dust yet to be. LOL!
Thanks for this great blog post.
Take care and God bless you and yours
Learning
***warning:as usual, not proofread....
<< Am I turning too crotchety in my old age or has their standards fallen? >>
Their standards have fallen. :)
How very good to hear from you!
I was just wondering the other day how you were, not having heard from you for some time.
I am very blessed because the cancer which I've had twice has been in remission for three or more years now. It certainly makes one take stock of one's life, and make sure that life is lived as a precious resource. It sounds as if you are doing just that.
God bless you and my prayers are with you.
I am actually smiling as I read your name.
I wish I could visit here more often but my health leaves me not able to keep up with much at all.
When I can, I do visit here because I really to love this place.
It's truly a great community.
I've learned much here
but I've also enjoyed our little community on the net.
Some of the sidebar discussions had me in tears in raucous laughter.
You all are a very intelligent lot.
I love it when you aim it at humor.
I hope you and your (many) children are staying safe and keeping each other uplifted.
Take care, my dear cyber friend.
Learning
I am overjoyed that you've been in remission for so long. You're ever closer to the safety zone.
Alas, I can't say the same thing.
The only blessing about this Covid is that I don't have to get scared every three months to hear the biopsy results.
I hope I'm OK. So far, I don't see any monsterous growths, but that had to dig deep inside for my last one.
Now that is a quite battle scar.
The top side is that I'm hardly embarrassed by the others in comparison. LOL!
Oh, I can't tell you how relieved I am for you.
Why is it that we worry more for others than ourselves.
For me, I HATE the feeling of being totally helpless to actually be of any help.
I'm living like a wounded amoeba but I keep hoping for the last minute save.
I used to believe it. Now I only hope for it.
The good side is that the ongoing pain and fear makes me feel more accepting of death.
The other good side is that I'm still hoping for a long(ish) life.
There is so much more that I want to feel, learn and experience.
Most of all I want to outlast Covid.
I want to be able too see my loved ones again.
I want to hug them.
I want to laugh with them.
I want to be able to cheer them on.
I want to be a positive force for the little ones.
I miss seeing the love and wonder in their eyes.
I miss their laughter most of all.
Nobody laughs as beautifully as a child.
I hope you, your and the whole of the UK survives the Covid.
I'll smile imaging you and Lucy walking to your local for a filling meal and a sharing a pint and good cheer.
While I'm gone, hold down the fort!
Your community is precious to me.
Learning
***Again, not proofread.
Ha! There is a bright side to everything.
My doc wanted me to go to the hospital
but I argued about the Covid.
(It's really bad here. At least we're not the 2nd worst state in infections, hospitalizations and deaths any longer)
Awhile back he had given me a face shield to wear along with the mask
because I'm so vulnerable.
My body has enough to fight against. LOL!
I also argued that our Governor had a cancerous tumor from his kidney.
They refused allowing him a follow up,
The governor stated
"If they refused me care and I'm the Governor,
your chances are mighty slim."
LOL!
When I reminded the doctor of this, he relented.
(I did an inward happy dance as I HATE hospital stays)
We yelled at me because I insisted on remote phone visits as much as possible rather than exposing myself every month.
Haha! He didn't say a word.
Come to find out one of his (very young) nurses contracted Covid,
was hospitalized and needed oxygen assistance for a few days.
That would have killed me for sure.
I still shake when I was suffocating in my own blood.
There's not much more terrifying than drowning in your own blood.
Thanks to the Covid, I will not be roped into going to the hospital unless
the reason is worth playing those kind of odds.
LOL! Perversely, I'm thankful for that.
Please stay safe.
I worry for EVERYBODY as much as I worry for myself.
The world will have some serious rejoicing to do when we beat this.
Learning
This is really good. I've tended recently to "squander" my free time ("mindless" is an apt term), and today simply writing down what I'm about to do (e.g. MF blog: find procrastination post), what I'm already doing (e.g. Read procrastination articles on MF blog), or ideas I get of what I could do (e.g. Share video on MF forum) has helped a lot to help me feel in control again without the dreaded loss of freedom which I tend to associate with running to-do lists. Sort of like "real-time" to-do lists, including what you've done/are doing, so the lists aren't just ideal states/actions that'll take a lot of effort to get onto.
I think what made this different for me compared to a no-list is that it helped me realized that I could basically run a no-list at the end of my long list. So I'm not giving up my long list.