These days many people are obsessed with self-improvement, personal productivity and time management. It may seem counterintuitive, but chasing after the madness above can actually be self-defeating.
In other words, they might actually be doing something more dangerous.
Don’t get me wrong: Being productive is fun. And Kaizen, which means “continuous improvement,” is a strong Japanese business philosophy that is the main reason for the great success of Toyota and other companies.
This is a compulsive aspect that we can find in many things. Many people’s obsession with self-improvement and personal productivity bears great resemblance to the genre of self-help and the endless pursuit of fixes, miracle cures, and magic pills.
It’s also more than a little ironic that the same people who are pursuing custom fads often waste most of their time on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Seems absurd, doesn’t it? In fact, it is, albeit in a less obvious way. These are all obsessive, compulsive, addictive behaviors that vainly try to satisfy a baseless need for instant gratification, attention, and distraction.
And, inevitably we must realize that this is a waste of your precious time.
Okay, we don’t just want to talk about wasting your time in the short term. In fact we’ve talked about the limited time you have to earn a living and have enough savings to support yourself and your family in retirement.
This time too we will talk about the importance of loving your time, studying, and enjoying life. We are actually talking about your time on this planet.
Don’t get me wrong, your time is the most valuable thing you have. Whether it’s business or personal, if it’s fun, if you love what you do, if it works for you, then we have to admit that we’re breaking the habit.
Also read: 7 Ways to Overcome Mental Block.
If you don’t, there’s a good chance that you’re just wasting your valuable time, so avoid the following:
1.Looking for 4 Hours of Work in a Week
Yes, that has a point, Tim Ferris’ point is to outsource non-critical activities so you have more time for what’s important. There is some sense to it. Just don’t take it too far or you’ll end up chasing myths.
Actually there are no shortcuts in life. You may be able to slide without working too hard, but if you want to do great things, you need to change your habits.
2.Become a Slave to Your Phone and Inbox
Unless you’re waiting for something important, the reason you respond quickly is because it tastes good. It strengthens your ego.
While at work, I try to turn off the ringer on my phone and the volume on my computer. I’ll try to deal with those things later. Actually it’s not about learning from time management books. This is just common sense.
3.Trying to Get Organized
If your desk looks like it’s been hit by a tornado, it really could have been. It’s also not an organized mess. It’s just a minor mess and of course you don’t need to worry.
Now it turns out that you don’t need to know anything, not like you used to. All the necessities of our life are now in the cloud. You can search for anything.
4.Trying to be a Morning Person
If you see just one more article about the 42 things successful people do before breakfast, then it’s a good idea to go back to sleep and cover your head with a pillow.
Try to be yourself, even if you can’t get up early and always miss a meeting.
If you are just trying, you should train yourself to be better than just getting up early, but prepare yourself from the morning and not just getting up.
5.Trying to be Productive
When you decide to have a career, then quitting your job may be something unpleasant. If you mix work and pleasure, while the time is rather long, work is actually very satisfying and relatively low stress levels.
You don’t always work as hard as you should, but you always work as hard as you have to to get the job done. It is this philosophy that you should hold in your conceptual work.
6.Do what other people do
So it is with cultural norms. It is important for us to adapt so that we are stronger. Apart from peer social pressure, there’s actually an addictive aspect to it because it’s the neurotransmitters in your brain that amplify certain behaviors.
It’s supposed to help us survive, but in the modern world this sort of goes off the rails. It’s really serious, it’s not making it up because it’s so real.
7. Online Addiction
That’s right, we’ll get to that in a bit. Life is a game with a time limit. You will only get so much time and the game will be over. Everything is now done online (in person visits are very rare).
By doing it online, we actually save a lot of time that we have. But you have to be careful, because if you are addicted to online then you actually spend your time only on gadgets.
Okay friends, that’s our discussion of everything we need to avoid so we don’t waste time. If you’re serious about making good use of your time, avoid activities that seem productive when in fact are a waste of time.
