Comments on: Where Did All of My Time Go? A Recipe for Reclaiming Your Time for Success

By: Pearl

Pearl — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 02:35:26 +0000

#1 addiction was TV: rerun cable shows, movies I’ve seen countless times, shopping networks, reality TV. I quit cable and moved to Netflix; now, although I do have streaming and response DVDs, I choose what to watch and in my opinion, the overall quality of my TV time has gone up. I also have access to superb films (those by Fellini, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, for example) that I did not get via cable. #2 addiction: blog reading. I’ve categorized blogs into day-of-the-week and I rea dthem 2-3 times/weekly, rather than everyday. If I don’t read a blog for 2 weeks, I remove it from the lineup.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:11:10 +0000

@Kevin,

I don’t think Trent’s saying “watching a movie – BAD”

I think it’s more like my time waster: failbook. There’s a lot of funny stuff on the internet, and it’s easy to waste 2 hours surfing “nothing” and then you still have your work to do, and no “free time” left to do something fun like watch a movie because you spent your fun time already.

In my case, I’ve realized I’d rather watch the movie, so I do some work, watch the movie, and try and ignore youtube.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:59:35 +0000

Once you’ve decided which items are just time fillers (or wasters) that you want to tackle, you also will need to prioritize which of the projects you can realistically address in the found time. I always have a long list of items I’d like to do, but know I’ll probably never get to all of them, as the list is perpetually growing.

Also, I noted in re-reading your post that first you mention reading a book as a time waster, then remembering that one thing you used to do was reading. I, for one, think that reading anything improves you, even if you’re just learning to recognize bad writing or a poorly developed plot/thesis, or finding that you prefer reading more demanding books (& make the necessary change in future selections).

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:38:07 +0000

Why does every single second of every single day have to be “productive?” If I want to spend 2 hours watching a mindless popcorn flick that “doesn’t leave me thinking differently about anything,” but had lots of cool explosions and gave my surround sound system a workout, what’s wrong with that?

Who can really be “on” 24/7 without burning out? We NEED some mindless downtime now and then.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:26:12 +0000

Often time wasters are a sign of boredom or fatigue. If you don’t look forward to starting a task, or you have no energy to be productive, then Facebook and mindless websites become more appealing. Part of the solution is to spend more time on things that matter (not always possible, of course) and get plenty of rest.

By: Jacque

Jacque — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 06:43:46 +0000

You can’t be productive 24 hours a day. I think Trent is going way overboard lately into self-help topics and wants to become a self help guru. I would not want to have his outlook on life where reading a pageturning novel or spending time on the phone with my mother is a time waster.

By: krantcents

krantcents — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:21:46 +0000

I believe that even busy people do what they want to do. You set your priorities and determine what is important to you.

By: S01

S01 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:05:25 +0000

I find I tend to be more prone to wasting time on forum boards or random reading when I’m tired or maybe fatigued would be a better word. After a full day at work, some exercise, cook dinner, clean a little etc I’m fairly tired and it can be really hard to productively use that last 1-3 hours left at the end of the day. Even tried the old nap trick without much luck, best I’ve found is to simply push through the fatigue, once I get started the energy of the activity whatever it is tends to keep me going.
Although some days all I can do is sit there and stare at a wall :)