7 Most Useful Ways to Waste Your Time
No time waste is time-waste
You are a productive person, you don't like to waste time. You have followed time managing courses, productivity classes, instructions of investment gurus, and motivational quotes. You must have gone to the points before reading this boring introduction; shows how devoted are you.
But there is a new Web-Series trending on Twitter. Your friend watched it and madly talking about its awesomeness. You have to watch it. You must. It's not your genre, but everyone is talking about its glory. And you decided to watch it, even if just one episode.
You must be feeling regret for betraying your routine, all the stuff you have devoutly followed from other successful people.
Why do you feel regret or guilt? Because you wanted to do other things that you’ve thought and scheduled in the morning. And that TO-DO app is constantly notifying you your crime.
But let me be clear and louder. You have not wasted your time.
Every time you think you’ve wasted is no time wasted.
Without wasting much of your precious time, the following techniques can be useful to you. You can waste your time doing things that could be productive and can improve mental health as well as creativity.
Observe — Listen — Learn
It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. — Claude Monet
You’ve been watching a Web-Series or an Anime (which I do quite a lot), or just sitting on a bench outside waiting for someone, or just watching outside the window, do one thing, observe.
Observation is a tool you can use to see through any event, find the problems, and seek answers. With observation, you are constantly searching for something valuable.
Your senses are most active when you’re seeking something out. You see for details, you hear someone’s comment, you smell something really good cooking somewhere near.
It is an exercise not only for your senses but also for your brain. Your brain starts to infer and analyze the issues and tries to find a solution. Your brain learns from various deduces it makes.
This learning method is intuitive and efficient.
With observation, you can learn things that are not written anywhere.
Imagine and Daydream
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. — Oscar Wilde
Imagination and daydreaming solved the universe's most complex problems. Albert Einstein deduced the Theory of General Relativity imagining several situations witnessed in everyday human life.
No, you don’t have to find the answers to the universe. But why not your universe?
Many will discourage you from daydreaming because it kills time and produces nothing. It does produce many things and it's actually beneficial for your brain and your thinking and analytical skills.
Daydreaming has scientific benefits that will make you more productive. It will make you think out of the box, making you creative and open-minded.
With daydreaming, you can be well prepared for future events and be confident to handle any situation.
Think with Critical Thinking
You have a brain and mind of your own. Use it, and reach your own decisions. — Napoleon Hill
Sitting on a couch, watching the ceiling fan, or the window and thinking about doing something, we do this quite often, right?
You can easily burn your time thinking about something that you’re not going to do. Or thinking about past events, especially events of failure, making it more frustrating than it is now in 2020.
Don’t just think, but think critically.
Develop the Critical Thinking method to analyze and evaluate certain things. Critical thinking sharpens your observation and inference skills, making you aware of your situation.
Critical thinking can improve your decision-making capacity with a boost in confidence.
Applying critical thinking, you can avoid self-inflicted manipulation and also manipulation by others.
Talk to Your Inner-Self
This is the most productive thing that I believe is underrated and underplayed.
Self-talking is completely normal and is actually productive.
We all say “You can do it!” in the mirror, to believe in ourselves and be confident in achieving things. Self-talking makes you capable to take on any difficult situations.
Self-listening and self-cheering are useful in low-time and can kill anxiety. It will make you able to efficiently tackle any situation.
It also makes you aware of your weaknesses and strengths. You will prioritize your work on the basis of achievability. Self-awareness is most important when approaching things that can possibly harm your productivity and may cause mental stress.
Remember, you are your first friend, do not let her/him down.
Relax — Breath — Sleep
There are tons of things in 2020 to trigger anxiety and depression. It’s painful sometimes to have nothing but worries.
Your brain is oversaturated with invasive things making it sluggish and less productive. It’s making you frustrate and it will discourage any possible initiative.
You need a break, to start fresh.
Relax and meditate to practice breathing. It will stabilize your mental chaos and cure your inner fatigue. Besides clearing your mind will make you more efficient and creative.
Sleep whenever you feel to relax. A short power-nap is very essential to kill fatigue, tiredness, and stress. Sleeping will restart your inner system. Many companies allow and encourage napping on work.
Enjoy Every Moment in Your Life
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. — Bertrand Russell
Your life is one and absolute. It is a depreciating entity. You cannot live your life twice unless you have a time machine.
Why not waste your time doing something that you enjoy, like watching clouds or birds, or that web-series your friend was boasting on Twitter.
Working tirelessly and do things repetitively feels like a robot. You have to do things for several reasons, but if you do not enjoy things you are doing, it will make you suffer, both mentally and physically.
Enjoying things can help your attention and focusing abilities. Your brain will start to accept and eventually like things that were boring.
Enjoying life means accepting it as it is. This alone makes you able to drive your life and change it the way you like.
A happy and healthier mind can survive anything.
Go on a Walk
All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking — Friedrich Nietzsche
Walking is the most productive activity. It improves yourself not just physically or mentally but also socially.
It energizes you. It circulates your blood to the right places. Make all the muscles and ligaments work in tandem. It straightens your computer-inflicted-forward-leaning-posture. Basically it makes you healthier.
Walking freshens your mind and gives you more clarity. It gives you more space in your brain to be creative. It also wears out any mental stress or anxiety. Walking gives you the freedom to think and reflect on your weaknesses.
Meeting new people, engaging with them create social bonding. With walking, you get new experiences listening or talking to people. Socializing and caring for others makes you a better human.
By walking you can learn things that four walls and one screen will never teach you.
There are many things you can do while wasting your time, that might help you in any way. There is no harm in taking a break now and then from your schedule, it will make you understand life more than ever.
Time management and time following have become a skill. It would not be an exaggeration if I say it became a religion to some.
But leaving or ignoring the important things or people for lack of time is more hazardous than wasting time.
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. — Bill Watterson
Thanks.