Most people say busy, stressful lifestyles are when makes us perceive time as much shorter as it was 10 or 20 years ago. I’d say the lack of organization skills along with all that stress and modern technology designed to help us have fun contributes our chronic lack of time. But it’s not all black and white girls. It never is. So, here’s a list of those things that waste our precious minutes and hours along with the tips on how to deal with them.
You start by checking you mail and find yourself two hours later, still in the same position checking out random sites or Facebook profiles. Computer, or better yet Internet, is a potentially huge time waster! Yes, it’s filled with great information and interesting stuff but you need to dose it and use it only when you have time to waste. Browsing through pages and pages of interesting stuff can be very entertaining, especially during those rainy or extremely cold evenings when you feel lucky to be at home. However, if you know you don’t have any time to lose, check the basic things and quickly turn of the computer before you feel the need to start going deeper into things you’ve just seen. Bookmark interesting sites and visit them when you actually have the time to do so.
Interesting TV shows always start when you have plenty of things to do. And most people are always like, “Okay, just this one TV show and I’m going to get the things done”. But after that TV show starts another one and another one and you spend a couple of hours glued to the TV and in desperate need of more hours to get your jobs done.
If somebody calls you while you’re in the middle of something, excuse yourself and tell that person you’ll call her when you finish the thing you’re doing. I didn’t know how to do this at first and then I realized people usually call others when they finish their own jobs and have nothing to do. So I have a very enthusiastic, carefree chatter willing to keep blabbing for two hours and the only problem is that I NEED THOSE TWO HOURS. So, excuse me but, if you can’t live with the fact that other people have lives, jobs and things to do too – find somebody else to bother! Right?
Some people just drop by uninvited just before dinner and feel completely free to stay until your head starts tilting on the side from exhaustion. Others are kind enough to at least call and ask you which day is good for you but the end result is still the same. I have a friend like that, my mom has a friend like that and my sister also. So, I’m guessing at least some of you can relate to this. Now, the biggest problem about this is that they completely mess up your plans and keep you up later thus completely unable to focus the day after. Don’t be quiet – let them know, you’re tired or busy. When a friend of mine wants to drop by I often tell her I would very much like to see her but I have only two hours of free time. She never leaves on time and always ends up staying three, three and a half hours but, hey, at least it’s not 6 or 7!
Make lists of things you need to get done the next time you go downtown or a supermarket shopping list. Forgetting one of those things will mean you’ll have to do it all over again and spend more of your time and money for gas, parking etc.
Give yourself a nice, stimulating prize – once you get the things you’ve planned, you’re make yourself a cup of coffee and drink it while it’s warm while doing something you like. Don’t start cleaning the house or doing some work and then pause it every half an hour to get a few sips of coffee and have a cig. Your coffee will get cold, you’ll smoke more and the work you’ve started will take forever to get done.
Organize your closet, paperwork, makeup and you’ll never have to spend a lot of time searching for things again. Trying to find a blouse, a pair of shoes or that important document is always a terrible waste of time, because you need to know the location of your things at all times. What if something bad happens you need to pack a few necessary things quickly? I’m hoping it never will but think about it and try to imagine how better and more organize your life would be if you knew the location of every single item you need to get ready for work in the morning.
This is a skill I’ve been trying to adopt very hard! The point is that your hair, makeup and wardrobe can’t always be perfect. Sometimes you have enough time to spend four hours getting ready to go out and sometimes you have to be done in 30 minutes maximum! I never believed I’ll be able to get ready in 30 minutes only but I’ve finally mastered this and you wouldn’t believe how many things can be done in just 30 minutes. Dressing up takes 5 minutes, putting makeup another ten and then you have full 15 minutes to decide what to do with the hair. If it’s dirty you can put it in the pony tail or bun and just wash and blow-dry your bangs – it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to do this and nobody will notice you hair isn’t really crispy clean!
Hope you like this list, girls. Can you tell me now, what is your biggest time- wasting habit?
Top Photo Credit: RBerteig