I’m not normally a whole New Year resolution chick or anything like that, but something sparked inside of me this year. When that ball “dropped” at midnight to signal that we just stepped into the year 2020, my soul adjusted.
I’ve been really focused on using a word of the year, more on that later, and have been better at saying no, sticking to my worth for freelance writing work, and being more present in my family’s life.
After nearly two years of feeling numb, lost, and all that fun jazz that comes after a traumatic experience, I feel like I’m finally in a peaceful spot.
With each new day, I feel high levels of gratitude for friendship, trust, loyalty, happiness, contentment, family, joy, and connections.
Something that I’ve been very focused on this year is time wasters. I used Clockify.me to track my work hours for each task I do during my work at home mom days.
I found out that I’m only working an average of 4.5 hours per day, 6 days a week.
That got me thinking …
What the hell have I been doing with the other hours in the day, then?
That’s when I realized that there is a lot of time wasters sucking my energy on things that don’t really matter.
Facebook.
Twitter.
Emails.
Randomly clicking tab to tab on my PC with no focus.
Overthinking.
Overanalyzing.
The list of time wasters I’ve started to recognize in my life can go on and on, but that’s not what I wanted to share. Instead, I wanted to share some of the ways I’ve started to remove time wasters from my work and personal life.
Removing Time Wasters
Delete Social Media Apps
I had to remove addictive social media apps from my smartphone. I was tired of having this urge to check for new prospects on FB or comments about work and so on. I was tired of feeling restrained from enjoying my family life because I was constantly “working” from my phone on FB and Twitter.
I deleted them about a week ago and boy has it helped me have more time for family. I feel more relaxed, less anxious and totally present with my family!
Drink Less Alcohol
For some alcohol isn’t a problem, but for me? I love my beer! One thing I’ve learned during my road of self-discovery is that alcohol is something I crave when life is getting testy. Alcohol may not sound like a time waster, but it is! Whenever I have some alcohol at night to “relax” I tend to be more groggy the next day.
Waking up and being groggy for the day means that I’m not functioning to my best level and that I’m not as present when it’s time for family moments thus it’s been classified as a time waster for me.
Stop Replying To Everyone
This time waster was rather hard for me. While I don’t have to have the last word, I do like to reply to people to keep the conversation going online and that is a huge time waster. I’ve learned that not every comment needs a reply or acknowledgment which has saved a tremendous amount of time.
Replying to everyone would ultimately lead me down a path where my anxiety would creep in and I’d be just about wiped for the rest of the day. I learned that my energy was best used elsewhere, and removed that time waster fast.
Pause The Overthinking
I said something out loud the other day to my hubs who I could tell thought I had lost my mind saying this/feeling this. I said that “I feel left out of things that I really don’t want to be a part of anyway.” And right there, when I said that I realized it makes no sense. I’ve been wasting my time overthinking things that I don’t even truly care about or want to be a part of.
I now stop overthinking. If I feel hurt by something or left out, I pause and remember that I don’t even want to be a part of that so shrug it off and move on.
Address “Family” and “Friends”
Lastly, I hate to say that family and friends are time wasters but sometimes they really can be. During my work at home hours, I’ve been very cautious about who I engage with. I’ve become more comfortable with not replying immediately to family or friends when I’m in “work mode”.
I’ve also learned that not getting too emotionally involved in my family’s or friends’ issues helps remove the time waster of overthinking about their situation.
In conclusion, there are many time wasters in our world that we don’t even think about.
Did you realize that overthinking is a time waster?
I mean, it really is.
Many things are wasting your time and that’s why I wanted to share some of the time wasters I removed from my life thus far in the year 2020 with you so that you can see just how many things are wasting your precious time in both work and personal life.
May this post inspire you to start slowly chipping away at those time wasters so that you can feel more peaceful, happy, content, and joyful in your everyday life.
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