When I say the phrase - "That is such a waste of time" I am usually referring to television, video games, sporting events, Facebook, and other social medias, etc... It's an ongoing list to this time waster hater. Then a few days ago I began to count the ways we waste time in a less obvious way.
1) Complaining: If you are a complainer you are probably a perpetual complainer wether you realize what you are saying is complaining or not. When you complain you usually stop what you are doing to complain about it. Also, when you complain someone else is usually there to listen and you might very well be causing them to stop what they are doing to listen. ("What did you say? Talking to yourself, oh, okay")
2) Not listening: If you are being instructed by someone and you are only half listening, chances are you will either have to ask them to repeat what they said (which would waste both your time and theirs) or you will take longer trying to figure out just exactly what it was they wanted you to do.
3) Gossip: Gossip is a horrible waste of time. There is no good reason to turn your conversation to gossip. You are wasting everyone's time. And we all know that when you have a "juicy" piece of news to tell, you like to stop a moment and send a text, or call a friend, etc...
4) Selfishness: This point can't begin to cover all of the ways selfishness will waste your time. Have you ever not wanted to meet someone and so you took the long way around to avoid walking past them? Have you ever slipped in a few extra minuets of break at work, wasting your company time and money? Do you sleep in too late? Do you take the long way home so you can stop for ice-cream?
5) Pride: Has pride or stubbornness ever made you wait a little longer to do something for the sake of being right? Have you ever taken matters into you own hands because "you know how to do this" only to do it all wrong and have to have it done over again by someone else?
6) Discontentment: The more you think you need, the more time you will spend day dreaming about it. It takes a lot of time to plan for the bigger and better. "Where are we going to fit that grand piano?" "We will have to rearrange the furniture..." Shopping? How often do you shop just because you feel like it? Are you buying unnecessary things?
7) Perfection: Sometimes a state of perfection is necessary...it depends on your job. But most perfectionists don't require perfection to keep there job, thats just the way they are. But there should always be a good balance in ones life. It's impossible to keep everything perfect and it's a true waste of time to try and do so.
8) Unorganized: Taking a few minutes to prepare will save a lot of time in the long run. From grocery lists, to house plans, organization and planning are important ways to save time.
9) Laziness: This one is pretty self explanatory. Just think about that high school guy you worked with at McDonalds (your first job). He wasted everybody's time!
10) Ignorance: Ignorance is closely associated with not listening, but continues on farther to other things such as: Not taking a moment to ask for directions (I'm not just talking about driving), failing to study or do the homework for a class and taking it over again, not preparing for a speaking engagement that turned out to bigger than you thought. Ignorance almost always wastes a multitude of people's time, not just your own.
11) Impatience: Impatience is what a lot of unorganized people struggle with. Don't dive into things until you are prepared. A lot of high schoolers feel like they dive into college unprepared and many drop out or switch colleges wasting a lot of precious time and money. People jump at once in a life time opportunities only to find out that something better was waiting for them.
12) Social Standing: Doing things to impress others or make yourself look good to others when none of it really matters to you. Wasting your time on other people's opinions. (How do you know they are even watching?)
Sarah
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