4 Things You're Doing That Suck Away Valuable Time

People complain about not having enough time in the day to do everything they want to do. If they had more time they would exercise, take a course, or start reading books again. The truth is we all have time, but we don't all make the best choices when it comes to using that time. Here are some common things people do that suck away valuable time in their day.

1. Watching reruns for the thousandth time

If you can recite a television series or movie along with the characters, you have seen it enough. By watching it more you are choosing to waste time. Turn off the television and find something else to do. If you're in the habit of always having the TV on from the moment you wake up to when you go to sleep, you are being distracted by that bad habit. Save your TV time for watching a new show you're into instead of something you've seen 5,000 times.

2. Checking social media

Spending time on social media will suck the hours right out of your day. Never go onto social media first thing in the morning. The chances of anything important happening overnight that you need to be aware of is slim and you don't need to be up-to-date on what your friends had for breakfast. When you do finally check your social media, reply to any messages and then give yourself a time limit for looking at status updates. Ten minutes is more than enough time. When you're done, log out and close the page so you're not tempted to look again.

3. Playing games

It's so easy to access games these days. Free games are especially tempting. There are endless game apps, online games, and computer games. Being a gamer is perfectly fine, but there needs to be a time limit set. While a hobby is great, you can invest too much time in it. It's important to not only limit your game playing time, but also the amount of games you play. You don't have to play every type of game there is and play what your friends are playing. If you play five games and spend fifteen minutes catching up with each one, you've just wasted 75 minutes. And that's assuming you only play once a day, which most people don't. Limit your games to two at most and you'll gain lots of time throughout your day to work on other projects.

4. Relaxing

After a long, hard day of work it's understandable that you want to relax, but relaxing for the entire evening before you sleep is bordering on too much relaxing. If you happen to sit at a desk for your job and then come home and lounge on the couch all evening, this is a very unhealthy amount of sitting. Sitting too much can lead to cancer, obesity, and heart disease. Take time to relax, enjoy a leisurely dinner while you catch up with the people in your household, and then move on to something else. Spend an hour doing something that you always talk about wanting to do instead of sticking to your normal routine.

You'll find that you do have time to spend doing things, but it's usually the easy and fun things that are chosen. In order to spend your time more wisely, it's important to break old habits and implement new ones. By doing this you'll find yourself saying "I wish I had more time," a lot less.