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Isn’t it satisfying to actually finish tasks without — and I mean, WITHOUT — any distractions?
Whenever we complete our daily goals, it’s such a proud pat on the back as take our good night’s rest knowing we got the job done.
However, we also have to admit that distractions chew a huge chunk of our time on some days, and we sometimes readily embrace the temptations around us.
In this post, let’s see 5 of the biggest contributors to why we end up wasting our time instead of being productive.
Ready? Here we go!
5 Time Wasters That Hinder Productivity
1. Phones and Social Media
Watching a 30-second video here and there may seem harmless. Two videos? It won’t make much of a dent.
However, the grip of social media is to keep our attention and have our eyes glued to the screen.
Oftentimes, these apps aim to keep us hooked on the app, and voilà, they’re doing it perfectly right with all the entertaining videos.
We’re doomscrolling before we know it.
Without a limit, one can easily fall into this trap.
We won’t notice that we have already spent two hours in it, and in that time, we could’ve jogged, cleaned the room, showered, or replied to important e-mails.
I challenge you: The next time you scroll on social media, randomly pause and try to think about the last 10 videos you’ve seen.
Chances are, you won’t even remember them. That’s proof it has become the ultimate time waster in your day.
2. Setting no schedules
As someone who works from home, flexible working hours allowed me to work at my own pace and schedule.
However, speaking from experience, too much flexibility + touches of distractions + no schedule can lead to a great deal of procrastination.
You see, when we wake up without a schedule, a.k.a. a sense of direction, we’re just waiting for the pang of motivation that may or may not arrive.
Relying solely on motivation can be precarious because you don’t know when the inspiration will dawn on you.
So why not establish discipline and habits instead so that even when the inspiration and “excitement” don’t come, you still show up and fulfill tasks.
Work on a schedule. Show up, even when there’s a lack of motivation at hand.
3. Multi-tasking
While multitasking may sound amazing, it may actually do us more harm than good.
Of course, there are light multitasking skills like folding your clothes while helping your children with their homework.
Such multiple tasks cost us little to nothing and doesn’t seem overly burdensome. It may even look like we’re getting more things done.
However, from a grander perspective, the truth is that we’re losing accuracy and quality whenever we multitask.
Try applying this approach to more demanding tasks, and you’ll see how multitasking doesn’t yield optimal results because our minds are too scattered to finish one thing at a time.
Studies show that we become less efficient when multitasking. Switching our gears back and forth, especially for complicated tasks, would only result in reduced quality work.
If we have numerous tasks, do them one at a time.
4. Indecisiveness
Chronic indecisiveness is more than just the difficulty of choosing. Rather, it could be a strong habit of not choosing at all. Eventually, it leads to procrastination.
Guilty here. I could scroll on my Grab app, deciding which food to buy for an hour and eventually not order. *sigh*
Or checking for movies on Netflix and switching up every 5 minutes until I get bored and watched nothing at all.
Sometimes, indecisiveness can also be caused by looking way ahead to the future, trying to “feel” your choice, and making sure it’s the perfect move or option.
Without knowing, this routine eats up our whole afternoon instead of making the most of our work hours.
How to combat this? Here are some ways:
For simple choices, practice snap decisions.
If you’re ordering food, aim to satisfy your hunger and not achieve “ultimate” satisfaction particularly if you know it could you take eons before landing on a choice.
Give a snap decision on where to sit in the class. Pick a movie, throw the remote, or don’t watch at all.
Make swift decisions and avoid overthinking about potential alternatives.
For more complicated tasks, follow a schedule.
As mentioned above, a schedule provides both structure and a timeframe. Try your best to stick to it, and your day will be less chaotic and smoother.
And if distractions come, run! Stay away from phones, people, or anything that captures your attention.
5. Binge-watching or reading
Okay, this is another guilty pleasure. I love binge-watching debates.
How about you? Are you guilty of devouring self-improvement books, novels, anime, or a TV series?
Although it’s not bad to immerse in our interests, the reality is that it can easily go beyond being “enjoyable pastimes” and become the subject of our procrastination.
There may be times when we love re-watching, re-reading, and re-hearing things that we already know, and I fully understand the thrill of seeing a video, book, or concept in multiple perspectives.
Or sometimes, we’re trapped by cliffhangers and find it impossible to tear ourselves away from our books.
No wonder we’re not finishing tasks at the right time!
Here’s what to do instead: allocate a specific time for your hobbies, TV, or books.
As for me, I usually do it at night from 6 PM while I make a conscious effort to keep my phone untouched during work hours.
Dedicate time to our work and allot time for our hobbies.
As mentioned, multi-tasking isn’t giving us the best results, so it would be better to manage our time wisely for more quality and efficiency!
It’s a temptation problem.
The things written above are mostly voluntary distractions we can easily get off our system. But for some reason, we sometimes couldn’t and ended up taking the bait, keeping us in unproductivity.
Thinking about it, these are temptations too, which is why they’re hard to resist.
To solve these, it’s said that we must “flee” from temptations. Don’t fight it because it’s hard to battle against the distractions that give us pleasure.
Flee from your phone and hide it at the farthest corner of the room when you work.
Flee from indecisive thoughts and pay no attention to the millions of choices; instead, practice snap decisions.
These are the 5 time wasters that hinder our productivity. I hope you learned some insights and soon get rid of them gracefully!
Thanks for reading!
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