How do you waste the most time every day?

The Future Time Machine

Reading this prompt felt like an alert. I felt someone was asking me my report card on how I waste my time. Wasting time is the most involuntary activity we all do.

In a day or say a week, we are all aware how we spend our time. Subconsciously we are also aware of the number of distractions we indulge ourselves in, to spend time. Only to realize later how we destroyed this precious resource available to us.

Here are my top 5 ways in which I have excelled to waste and kill time:

1. Overthinking:

This is a perennial loop. One thing leads to another in the mind and goes on in circles. Overthinking about future plans, relationships, that small banter between friends, that small comment from a family member or a friend and I just can’t stop.

2. Engaging in useless debates on social media:

I see a topic which I think I am fairly knowledgeable about and I just get into the groove. It’s a dopamine. It’s a dopamine to be able to research and prove my points factually. Proving points to the point of when according to me the debate is settled and the other person/group doesn’t have anything to say. Sometimes it ends only when the topic gets drifted or the discussion gets personal. Most often they do.

3. Instagram scrolling:

This is the new addiction. It’s the most creative way to convince myself that I am getting entertained. There are posts and reels which are inspiring. There are reels of personal stories , motivational videos, inspiring quotes which seem to simmer the personal development goals I have . But, just scrolling and not doing anything about anything is 100% wasting time.

4. Watching IPL matches (75+):

Yes! A 20 over cricket match is over 5 hours long. And to watch all of them or even half of them seems crime when put in context of wasting time. Yes, it’s an adrenaline rush to watch games, which are probably the purest form of human competition. But at the end of it, it’s just negative balance in my time bank.

5. Striving for perfection leading Procrastination:

This probably is the most self-convincing, highly intellectual level of time waste. How stupid can some line be to convince themselves that – “I will do it perfect. Perfection needs time. So, let me delay to find time later and do it perfectly.” Only to realise some time/days later that they don’t have Ben have a draft of what they had wanted to complete.

There is work going on to address these self-inflicted interesting ways of wasting time.

Today, the most important step was to respond to this prompt. Complete it and publish it.

Thank you for reading!