5 Hidden Time Eaters in Your Daily Routine Simple Strategies to Reclaim Your Time
by T.L. Farris
We all have the same 24 hours each and every day. 24 hours. How is it that we all have just 24 hours and yet it seems like some people build an entire business, write their thesis, solve world hunger and still make it to the gym while others are applauding themselves for having accomplished reading a page of the book that has been on their shelf for a month.
Time.
It’s a funny, annoying, and finite entity that we can either learn to conquer or allow to get away from us. It comes down to our ability to diminish time eaters and effectively use the time we have. There are 5 common activities, mistakes and tasks that I believe are some of the biggest time eaters in our daily lives. These things are stealing your limited time and minimizing your effectiveness in reaching your dreams and living the life you want to live. In this article I’m not only going to share with you these 5 common time eaters but I also want to give you the tools to get your time back and even add as much as a 24 hours back into your week.
Time Eater #1
Social media is a huge time eater in modern life. The average amount of time spent on social networks is 3 hours per day. That adds up to shocking 21 hours a week, qualifying it as a part time job. When I first learned how much time is wasted on social media I knew I needed to do something to take back my time, however I had built the habit of wasting time on social media so simply deciding not to wasn’t going to work.
Instead, I deactivated my Tik Tok account, deleted the Facebook and Instagram app from my phone, and put a “screen time” limit on the Pinterest app. I did this for a few months until I had broken the habit of mindlessly scrolling and habitually opening social media apps without even thinking about it. After the habit was broken I made the choice to redownload the Facebook and Instagram apps as I needed them for work, but I set screen time limits and never rejoined Tik Tok.
The “screen time” feature on iPhone is a great tool to set limits and boundaries for yourself with apps on your phone. I have a few entertainment apps on my phone; Netflix, YouTube, Pinterest, Disney+, and Kindle but they all have screen time limits set on them. When taking your time back from social media I recommend starting with a “detox” take a break for as long as you can then decide what coming back should look like for you. I promise the benefits far outweigh anything you could possibly “miss” while not on Instagram.
Time Eater #2
We spend so much time every day getting ready for something. Whether we are preparing our purse/bag to go to work, making our lunch, or even picking our outfits for the day. All of these things are important and they do have to happen, they just don’t necessarily have to happen every day.
Every Saturday I have what I like to call a “Life Admin Day” (I got this term from one of my favorite Youtubers Muchelle B, she is absolutely fabulous) A Life Admin Day for me is simply a day that I get all the mundane recurring tasks done to save me time throughout the week. This would be the day I do my laundry, prep my meals for the next week, change my purse if I’m going to, sit down with my calendar and plan out my week etc.
Doing all of these tasks in one big batch saves me so much time every day. Because I picked out all of my outfits for the week on Saturday when I was looking at my calendar I know for sure that I don’t have to worry about that outfit not being appropriate for my events that day, I know that I will have time to read my book that morning because I don’t have to go rifling through my closet panicking that I have nothing to wear.
These menial tasks can eat up so much time. Just picking your outfit in the morning (depending on the person) can take 10+ minutes x7 days in a week and you’re spending over an hour a week just deciding what to wear. That is one hour that you could spend working towards your dream life, spending time with your family, resting… Utilizing designated prep time to set yourself up for success can make a huge difference in how much time you have each week.
Time Eater #3
Research shows that an adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions per day, 226.7 of those decisions are on food alone. Our finite decision-making capability taps out at 75! You can only make 75 “deliberate, rational, analytical decisions.” per day and we are trying to make 35,000. No wonder we are so exhausted on a daily basis, we are literally running on empty. So how do you solve this impossible problem?
Stop making all decisions.
No, not really but we can cut down on the number of decisions we need to make each day. Like I mentioned in the last section about saving time by doing all the menial tasks for the week at one time well that doesn’t just save you time on doing those tasks it also saves you some decision-making energy.
If I don’t have to decide what to wear, eat for lunch, what to put in my purse, what to have for breakfast or what to read every day then I just saved myself 5 decisions that I’m sure I will need later.
Decisions are a big time and energy consumer and the best thing you can do is cut down on the amount you are having to make each day. Try and take the same route to work every day or plan the order of your day ahead of time so you don’t have to decide what to do first. Take a look at your average day and see where you can cut back on some decisions you need to make, to gain more energy and take back your time.
Time Eater #4
Your electronic devices can be great tools and also great distractions. I love my phone as much as the next girl but I have learned that if I don’t create boundaries for myself with my devices I can end up wasting hours clearing notifications from my phone and laptop all day.
So what do you do? You have to know what’s going on all day to make sure you don’t miss those important notifications and the imperative information. Well, as with social media when I first started I turned off all notifications for a while on all my devices just to detox from constantly clearing notifications. Then I went in and only turned on the notifications that are absolutely necessary for me.
I turned on temporary notifications for emails so I am notified that I received one but the notification doesn’t stay on my phone constantly distracting me. That is ultimately what notifications are; they are distractions from what you are working on at the moment, they are screaming for your attention whether they are important or not.
I would strongly encourage you to turn off all your notifications for a few days, detox then only turn on the important ones. It will save you so much time and improve your focus, and I guarantee that the amount of notifications you truly “need” is so much less than you’d expect.
Time Eater #5
Entertainment is another common time eater if you allow it to be. Keep in mind these time eaters are not eating away at our time of their own free will, we are allowing and often choosing to let them into our lives. One of the worst ways entertainment eats up your time is having it playing “in the background” while you work. (I call this a split-focus distraction which you can learn more about here.)
Doing this only divides your attention and forces you to lower the quality of your focus as you focus on both the task and the movie/tv show. The only way to solve this one is to stop. Stop playing movies/tv/videos in the background while you work. It will help you in the long run. As for engaging in entertainment as a time eater, it’s important to remember that you are in charge of your time so choose how you will spend it wisely. If you want to take back your time from this time eater you simply have to choose to. What is it most important for you to spend your time on?
Time eaters are not eating away at our time of their own free will, we are allowing and often choosing to let them into our lives.
Take it Slow
All of this may sound daunting to conquer but just remember progress is progress. Maybe this week you stop watching Netflix while you work and next week you start setting your clothes out the night before.
As Dr. Marvin from the movie What About Bob would say “It means setting small, reasonable goals for yourself. One day at a time, one tiny step at a time—do-able, accomplishable goals.” Don’t worry about how long it takes you to take back all of your time because all that does is eat up your time with worry, do your best and make small changes to see big results.
Want to learn more about how to be your best, most productive self? Check out my post Clearing Mental Clutter: A Simple Guide to Getting Things Done to start building your productivity system now.
