Why Wasting Time is Worst Than Wasting Money
You have less time left than you think….
You don’t have the promise that you will live tomorrow and you have less time on earth to do the things you truly desire than you think….
You’ve heard the saying “time is money” but I’ve learned to place even more value on my time to truly understand what that saying really meant.
In my past I used to look at time all wrong….
I use to sleep into until around noon, wake up without a purpose or sense of “productive” things I needed to get done. I spend hours playing the video game, watching TV, and countless hours scrolling through social media to see what was happening.
There’s no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time. — Helen Mirren
All of this while I was $100,000+ in debt, no sense of direction in my career, and no overall purpose to my life.
Everything changed for me when I read the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominquez. What fascinated me most is their quote around life energy: “You [pay] for money with your time. You choose how to spend it.”
They further talked about your age & average life expectancy. This is when I realized that “statistics” proves out that we have less time left than we think. Putting it into perspective, I’m 40 years old today and have an estimated 356,532 hours left to live.
Which forces me to ask myself, “am I really using my time wisely?” That allowed me to get real with myself.
That’s when I took at step back and discovered what truly meant the most to me which now I know clearly today as my 4 pillars of my life: Health, Wealth, Love & Happiness.
From there I was able to mold what I do with my time around those four high level goals which are broken down into many other sub-goals within them.
Examples of those goals:
- Sustain a healthy lifestyle (just recently lost over 40 pounds)
- Wealth (currently have 4 streams of income)
- Love (many goals to ensure I display my love to my friends and family)
- Happiness (sustain a career that makes my truly happy, working with and serving those I truly want to serve)
Maybe you’re at that point now as you’re reading this where you’re ready to change and be more intentional with your time. Keep reading as I’m going to show you how to ensure you’re using your time wisely.
#1 — Get Real & Assess What You’re Currently Doing Today
No one else can do this first step but you. You’re going to have to be real with yourself and truly assess how you’re wasting your time today.
Ask yourself:
- Am I sleeping in constantly and not waking up to get my productive tasks done?
- Am I spending too much time playing the video game?
- Am I checking my social media and scrolling too much throughout the day?
- Am I spending too much time watching Netflix or TV in general?
- Am I too available? Meaning are you always available when your friends want to go out?
- Are you saying “yes” to too many things? (more on this is #3)
If the answer is yes to many of these things then you’re not only wasting time but you’re wasting your life away. You’re what society considers to be a walking zombie or a puppet.
#2 — Set Some Goals
Many people think they have goals but they really don’t. Our cultures have conditioned us to live a puppet lifestyle. Doing just enough to get by and what we all know to be the “that’s just how it is” mentality.
Because our grandparents did it, then our parents did it, that now means it’s the right and only way to survive in life. That’s completely false.
This is why it’s critical that you set your own goals. What the goals dreams or amazing things that you want to achieve in your life?
Now is the time to bring them to life. Right them down…. lose weight, earn more money, start a non-profit, go into business for yourself, etc.
Write those things down and start executing on them. The other important thing to this is now you have some important things to spend your time on. When you wake up everyday, now you have a sense of purpose and a north star guiding what you spend your time on.
Filling your daily calendar up with the steps needed to accomplish these goals will force you to use your time more intentionally.
#3 — Take a Pragmatic Approach to Everything
One of the hardest things (may seem simple to you) for me to do today is to tell my friends and family no. Doesn’t matter what I’m saying no to it’s hard.
Because I genuinely care about other people’s feelings I would put their feelings ahead of my time. At the time I didn’t know how big of a mistake this was but I had to fix that quickly.
It was so difficult that instead of just saying, “no I can’t make it out for wings tonight because I’m working on my business.” I would lie and say, “My bad, I can’t because I have to be home because my wife isn’t feeling well.”
After working with my business coach, she helped me discover that I was worried about losing my friends and family by simply telling the truth. She then helped me adopt more of a pragmatic approach.
The emphasis on this is to value my time more than the request and to ensure what I’m saying yes to is in line with my overall goals. That was a game changer for me and allowed me to have a clearer perspective on “my” time.
There are many request that you’re getting today but will have to deflect:
- “Hey, mind if I borrow $100?”
- “Let’s meet up for drinks and wings this Wednesday night?”
- “There is an event at the church this Thursday, let’s go.”
I’m not saying that you say no to everything, but it’s important that you say yes to the things only that will allow you to get your high priority tasks done that’s in line with your goals.
If you’re one of those people filling up your whole day, fitting everything in but the important tasks that’s in line with your goals you’re wasting your life away not just your time.
It’s important to realize that your time is precious because it is limited and irretrievable and because our choices about how we use it express the meaning and purpose of our time here on earth.
If you’re 40 like my… you have 40.7 years and 356,532 hours left on this planet. It’s likely you spend about 50% of that time on doing things to fuel your body; sleeping, eating, exercising, cleanliness, etc. — in reality you have 178,000 hours of life remaining on things that you truly desire:
- working on creative projects
- relationships with friends and family
- maintaining your career
- community service
Know what you’ve learned today, you should fully be aware how important your time is. Now it’s up to you to ensure you’re using it wisely.
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