In my two previous posts, here and here, I argued that there is actually something that is worse for you than the much-dreaded procrastination.
And this is to waste your time on worthless things.
See:
To Procrastinate Is To Remain Inert In Your Current Position Instead Of Moving Forward
But To Waste Your Time On Things That Are Actually Meaningless To You
Is To Move Backwards!
So I propose that you must first strive to stop wasting your time on all these worthless activities, before being able to properly take on procrastination.
And here, I think I can help you.
I will do so by sharing with you 18 surefire and relatively easy to implement ways to drastically reduce the frequency of you proclaiming to yourself (or others): “Boy, was that a complete waste of time, or what…”!
Here goes the third and final part. I must repeat I firmly believe that should you try out my recommendations, you will observe a tremendous improvement in terms of time and good disposition gained.
You see, this advice is drawn from my own, extensive personal experience of successfully curtailing a lot of unreasonable and uncalled for (not to mention irretrievable) waste of time.
13. Do Conventional Things Unconventionally
As Long As You Don’t Hurt Others
Breaking your routine in smart, unexpected, yet respectful to others ways guarantees the elimination of much of your wasted time. This approach is also psychologically beneficial, as your feeling of a life wasted on “worthless junk” gradually disappears.
Here we touch upon something I discussed in an earlier article: “How” (you do things) is often more important than “What” (you are actually doing).
This is based on the fundamental truth that while the things you do in this life (the “what”) very often appear to be independent from your will, the way you do them (the “How”) is something that is entirely up to you.
So, you have no excuse not to spice things up! Even things that, as far as your tastes and preferences are concerned, seem like utterly meaningless or boring chores to you. Trust me, though: ESPECIALLY such things are the ones that require from you to be playful and creative in performing – very appropriate verb in this context – them, if you cannot avoid them to begin with.
(By the way, here’s a rhetorical question for you: do your tastes and preferences really express who you are? Or are they just whimsical products of your internal “mental noise” and external conditioning? Is it possible that you have adopted and identified yourself with them, without first taking a step back and thoroughly scrutinizing them?)
The only red line you must hold here has to do with the genuine respect you should always exhibit towards others. So, if you can, do things in the craziest possible way, by all means; just make sure you adhere to the “golden rule”, and never treat others in a way you, yourself would not want to be treated.
As a final point, keep in mind that sometimes (perhaps most of the times) to do things unconventionally can translate to no more than a very simple change in the way you do a particular thing. Yet, you can’t afford to underestimate this simple change, as it may lead to a disproportionately powerful boost of your psychology and motivation.
14. Stop Taking Life So Seriously,
Starting From Yourself
If you don’t take your life and yourself (that is who you think you are) so seriously, then it follows that nothing can so seriously affect you. To be bluntly explicit, no amount of “bullshit shoveling” could ever impact, let alone ruin, your mood, if you have the correct mindset in dealing with it:
That of playful seriousness (or serious playfulness).
(No fun also means no freedom and no evolution, remember?)
Come on, friend, can’t you see that this is all a big game, which, yes, may be based on certain fixed rules, but which is always also, and by definition, critically subject to randomness and unpredictability?
Reflect a bit on this. Once you start to truly, viscerally accept this premise, then you may find out it is not paralyzing, but it is rather liberating.
15. No Matter What, Do At Least Three Things Every Day That Make Your Heart Sing
Then, even if you can’t escape doing chunks of things that you find worthless and make your soul bleed, so to say, you have at least something to help you, even partially, make up for the lost time and morale these things caused you.
Plus, even when you are struggling through one or the other soul-numbing task, you will still have something to look forward to during the same day, and not at some vague point in the faraway future (and when you’re in the midst of performing a chore you detest, pretty much anything else feels as it belongs in a very distant future).
Obviously, the three things need not (should not) be very complicated or time-consuming. I am sure you already know what these three things could be in your case.
Why three?
Three is a powerful number.
It’s not just one thing.
It’s not just another.
It’s not just one thing here, another thing there.
It’s one plus another thing. In other words, three is the minimum number you need to establish a meaningful and working relationship between two different things.
I promise to cover that point further in a future post.
16. Let Go, Let Go, Let Go
Don’t cry over spilt milk.
Whatever happened happened.
You cannot turn back the hands of time.
All these are clichés. But like most clichés, they carry with them wisdom and truth.
The point is: Move on. Don’t ruminate endlessly on how you wasted your valuable time on this or that “meaningless chore” or “stupid thing that brought you no benefit whatsoever”.
It doesn’t make sense to beat yourself up about what went wrong and what you could have done better, replaying a situation you perceive as “negative” over and over and over in your head.
Yes, perhaps you can and should learn from it. But do so only in a constructive way. Anything in addition to that neither makes any sense nor does it help you.
In fact, such an attitude is bad for you.
So let go, on one hand, but also don’t worry too much about the future, on the other.
Focus on the (eternal, in reality, because you are always in it) now. Now is the time to do whatever you can to stop wasting your time on worthless bullshit. Or to consider the worthless bullshit you cannot escape doing, from another point of view.
One that is open, playful, unconventional.
17. Converge Your Inner Flow With The Flow Of The World
All the great spiritual masters in the history of humanity agree:
The root cause of all our suffering is our Ego.
Our Ego is generated via our ill-advised identification with the contents of our mind and our body. And we perpetuate it and constantly strengthen it by maintaining a feeling of separateness of who we think we are versus what we are not (that is, the world “out there”).
I am suggesting (not for the first time in this series of posts) that this is a very limited and fundamentally wrong way of perceiving ourselves and our reality.
What would be substantially more helpful and meaningful is to view the world as a seamless, all-inclusive whole.
And what would be even more helpful is to view the whole world as manifesting inside us, or as a product of our mind, rather than something entirely cut off from who we truly are.
Of course, I am not the first one to have entertained such a theory. And the select group of others who have done so does not include only individuals we would describe as “spiritual figures”, but also hardcore scientists of unprecedented accomplishment and diachronic fame.
So what is the point with respect to our current post’s subject?
The point is: consider reflecting on and accepting the notion that the never-ceasing flows of things inside and outside of you are in reality one and the same thing. That each of these flows feeds and is simultaneously being fed by the other.
If you understand the unbreakable relationship between the two only superficially distinct flows, you can then bring them closer, even to the point of full convergence. This practically means that sometimes you will be actively initiating and shaping things (“outward” flow), while other times you will be merely adjusting to things coming to you as given (“inward” flow).
It takes some practice and time to distinguish when it is appropriate for you to actively create or change things from when you should accept how things are and adapt accordingly. However, the better you get at it, the less you will feel that you are wasting (and the less you will be actually wasting) your precious time on things that are, at best, irrelevant with your purpose and trajectory in this life.
If you are a novice in this path, a great guide is your intuition.
You just have to enhance the acuteness of your “intuition hearing ability” (and here’s how you can do so).
18. Always Remember That Every Moment Of Your Precious Time
Is By Definition Unique And Unrepeatable
Yes, I know. This contradicts a bit my previous statement (under point number 16) about you always living in the eternal now (or actually being it).
Let me clarify: I was referring there to the fact that your awareness is always, by definition and unavoidably, attuned to the present moment. This means that the fundamental layer of your reality is always this “container” of the Eternal Now.
Now (pun intended) what happens in it, what forms the essentially formless takes, is something that is of course changing all the time.
And each manifestation, every “form reality” you experience (you being the perennial subject of everything that is going on) is by default something unprecedented, as well as something that can never be exactly replicated in the future.
The Universe loves similarity, but it doesn’t know what sameness is.
So, if you remember that fundamental truth as often as you can, then to fully enjoy life no matter what is going on, and therefore reduce or eliminate your perception of “wasted time”, is a one-way street.
Ask yourself: how can anything that is unique be a waste of time for me?
And if EVERYTHING is unique, then it can only be the case that nothing in your life is meaningless and without value (or with “negative” value).
This is an interesting twist to conclude this mini-series of my three blog posts on the 18 ways to stop wasting your time.
But life loves paradoxes. I’ve said this before, time and again.
And so do I.
And so should you.
Because the road from accepting this notion of an infinitely playful and benevolent universe (exactly like a wise, little child) to a life of constant evolution, boundless freedom and nothing short of utterly blissful fun is really short…
Until next time,
Remain safe and alert, and enjoy your life!
