Time management is something I believe almost everyone struggles with. I struggle with it and you probably do as well, otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this right now. If you are anything like me maybe you spend 30 minutes to an hour a day on Instagram getting lost in funny memes, pictures of cars, or nice houses. I go on Instagram to find a picture to post, or to post my own picture, but a lot of the time one picture that has nothing to do with why I opened the app in the first place will take me to a bunch of other pictures, and afterwards I will find myself wondering why I wasted my time looking through those picture that brought me nowhere towards my vision.
If you feel the same way and you take those same actions like I do, then keep reading on! I wish I could say I had perfect time management but I don't. In the world today we have become so used to little dopamine spikes from texting and social media that it can be hard to put your phone down for 5 minutes or more. Try it right now as you read this blog post. Set your phone down a few feet away from you and just be here with me while you read this (unless you are reading this on your phone). I am completely with you on this, it is hard, and I feel like looking at my phone right now. But since I told you to put your phone down, I also have to put mine down for the whole time I write this to be fair and present with you right now.
What does being on the phone have to do with time management? Do you ever notice that when you are working on something and you pull out your phone to text someone or open social media it takes your brain a minute or two to get focussed back on the task you were doing? Why is this? Well there are scientific reasons for it, but I would like to share my experience with you as a human being, not as some study that was done on 153.5 people.
If you are editing a video for example and picking up your phone every two minutes to respond to all your texts and go on social media, you are going to find that the video won't only take a longer time to edit, it will also turn out pretty mediocre. You may be thinking "this is just multitasking, what does this have to do with time management?" I would say multitasking has to do everything with time management. It takes your brain at least 30 seconds to get back on task to editing that video each time after you answer a text. So if it usually takes you 45 minutes to edit a video it would take you at least a hour if you are multitasking.
Even right now as I am writing this blog post I wanna pick up my phone and see if there are any messages, and check my Instagram. But I know that wouldn't align with my goals and bigger vision at this time. What it boils down to is to focus on one thing at a time and give it your full attention.
The next form of terrible time management that I see many people fall into including myself is spending too much time on time wasters. This can be television, Youtube, Netflix, video games, and still Instagram, Facebook, and texting. Most people will come home and manage their time horribly. They will sit down and spend a couple hours watching TV and that is the highlight of their day. Maybe you relate maybe you don't. If you are someone who relates to this type of behavior, like I do a few times a week as well when I feel like I have completed "enough", then what I would say to you is to reflect on your biggest goals and dreams in life. What are they? How does it feel in your mind to think of achieving these goals? Just asking yourself these questions will usually bring you to not do these time wasters as much.
These are probably the biggest time wasters today for most people. We are conditioned that it is normal to spend your weekends just doing the same stuff that doesn't benefit you or lift you up higher. The last thing I want for you is to be 80 years old and realize that you wasted too much time on a bunch of useless activity.
Closing thoughts
What did you get from this blog post? How are you going to apply these lessons to your daily life to free up more time for your own goals, and become the greatest you that you can be?
Live your life to the fullest,
Brian
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