Growing up we have a lot of spare time, so much that we sometimes don’t know how to fill our time. The older we get the quicker this time gets filled up and the least we want to waste our time.
Everyone has some activities they started long ago that was started out of enjoyment but that is no longer fun. Out of a habit we continue with them while it would be better to get rid of them. For example you might have started playing a game because you liked it, but now that you have less time you notice that it is no longer as fun as it was before. If you decide something is of no importance for yourself anymore distance yourself from it. Another example is watching certain movies or series solely because the people you know follow them. Participating in activities shouldn’t be obliged due to the people around you, rather perform the activities that you enjoy and are important for you.
Never mistake activity for achievement. – John Wooden
In a day there is only 24 hours, if we aren’t carefull our hours in the day will be over before we realise it. Performing a certain activity, being busy, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are being productive. There are plenty of daily activities that can be scaled down or deleted. Take a look at what you did yesterday, write down everything and do this for a week. You’ll quickly see that there are many useless activities. A great moment to look at is your morning routine. Are you stuck to your phone or to your laptop for 5 minutes or more? Likely 90% of that time is just wasting your time. Reduce it so that you can either read a book, take a short walk or sleep longer. A similar time is your bedtime. Are you going to bed at the same time every day and do you constantly push your bedtime further?
From the moment you find the activities that don’t benefit you reduce the time you spend on it and you slowly profit time. Clearing time allows you to have time to be spent somewhere more usefull. It could be to learn a new skill, improve an existing skill or spend more time with your family and friends. A different example of wasting your time is driving around with your car to no specific place only to relax. You could just as easy grab your bike and search for new adventure and enjoy the nice outdoors. Sometime it seems like we are doing something productive while it’s not true. For example we could sit with our friends, or family while being busy on our phones. More often than not there is nothing interesting happening on the phone but we are doing it because of (bad) habits. Instead distance yourself from your phone and enjoy time with the people that you care about.