Sound familiar? Yeah, that's me, all the time. Trying to balance school, work, family, speech and debate, and my other extracurriculars has me just about losing my mind most weeks. Why can't I fit it all in? This is something that I have asked myself over and over this school year.
Last week, I made a pointed effort to keep track of where my time was going. I would jot down everything I did, and for how long. Yes, it might seem obsessive, but it was worth it. Because I realized that I waste time. A lot of time. But I never waste it in large chunks, instead, I waste it in small amounts all day.
It's like a dripping faucet. Did you know that you can fill a gallon milk jug three times in one day, just by putting it under a dripping faucet? I tried it to see if you really can. You can also spend about three hours a day getting pretty much nothing done. I've tried that one, too. I finish something, and before I move on to the next, I check my email. Drip, drip. I'm doing homework, but someone just called or emailed me with a question, so I drop what I'm doing to get back to them immediately. Drip, drip, drip. Then I waste fifteen minutes figuring out what I was in the middle of. Drip. Supper isn't for half an hour yet, so I check facebook for the third time today. Drip, drip, drip.
And drip by drip, I lose hours of my day. 
What do recommend people do so they don't waste time?
ReplyDeleteHi Z! Thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteTime is a little like money - once you've spent it, you can't get it back. Because of that, you kind of need to "budget" it. I'm a list person, but I'm also easily distracted, so for me, not wasting time mostly consists of planning what I do when, and how much time I'm willing to spend on one thing. Two of my biggest time-eaters are social media and speech/debate research. Neither of these things are necessarily bad, nor are they by nature a waste of time, but the can quickly take up more time than I have to give them. Because of this, I've begun setting certain times that I research, or email people, or whatever else, and I've found that when I actually stick to it, it works really well!
Hope this helps! :)