Time wasters steal our time away from our planned activities. These are activities that we do instead of what we had originally planned, and in the evening we realize that the day has gone by without having made much progress in our learning tasks. These time wasters steal our minutes and hours without us being aware of it.
What are chronic time wasters
We’ve collected the most common time wasters that you should try to avoid in order to have an effective day and finish your goals on-time. These are the following:
● Time spent with learning is not planned, scheduled and there are no clear goals set;
● Procrastination;
● No priorities set
● Dreading to start a task because of its complexity and size
● Lack of an environment where one can focus without the common distractions being present (e-mails, social media, short messages, phone calls, etc.)
● Unrealistic goals and perfectionism;
● Not having clear and reasonable boundaries set regarding helping others (helping excessively, having a hard time saying no)
● I’ll finish this and then start… (conversation, reading, film, etc.)
● Learning while being tired;
● Chaos surrounding you (documents, learning materials, files, etc.)
● Lack of a permanent, learning space
● Use of outdated technology
We are sure you could go on and on with this list. You will have the opportunity to extend the list with your own ideas during the next activity.
Before moving forward to topic 4 “Tips and tricks to avoid wasting time”, complete activity 4.