Internet Business Blog

One of the most common complaints from people today is not having enough time. We all have just 24-hours in a day and yet there are those who always seem to be able to get so much more done than the rest.

What’s their secret? After all, you work the same hours and so you should have the same amount of free time. It’s not as if you waste your time. Okay, you watch a bit of TV, but who doesn’t? Everyone needs to relax somehow…

In today’s modern world, there are more ways than ever to waste away time; the very thing most of us claim to not have enough of and yet we carelessly spend it like there’s always going to be a tomorrow.

Whether you’ve come to accept it or not, you only have a finite bucket of time in which you are going to be able to live your life. You may not realise it, but you’re probably leaking time. It may not be gushing out so you’d notice it, but like a bucket with dozens of tiny holes, it all adds up or rather it all leaks out.

It can be difficult to prevent time leaks. The world we live in is more competitive and more demanding than it ever was before. We’re asked to work longer hours and it’s easy to become overloaded with information whether it’s information you want or not.

We’re very rarely alone any more, with mobile phones and the Internet to deliver instant communication from around the globe 24-hours a day. There are many opportunities to be distracted too, whether it’s from advertising or messages from our social networks.

All of these distractions will drain away your bucket of time, but you don’t have to let them.

You only have 24-hours in a day. That’s 168 in a 7-day week and you probably already spend one-third of that unconscious leaving you with 112-hours. Let’s say you work 9-5, 5-days a week. There goes another 40-hours that aren’t yours. You’re left with 72-hours to spread across the week and that’s not including the time it takes to shower, cook, etc. Let’s take off another 3-hours a day for essential activities. You’ve got 51-hours left. 26 of those are Saturday and Sunday. The remaining 25 means you have 5-hours per week night. What do you do with those?

How many of the following distractions eat into your remaining hours?

1. Watching ‘Reality’ TV - Watching other people live their lives. It’s a strange concept or are we all just a bit more voyeuristic than we’d like to admit? And it’s not just this particular genre, but also includes many other ‘nutrient-free’ shows.
2. Surfing Web 2.0 - Digg, YouTube, flickr… If you’re not gaining anything from these websites besides the entertainment factor then what are you doing?
3. Checking emails - Just like your post, your emails are delivered to your inbox. How often do you check for new post coming through your door and how often do you check for new emails?
4. Checking stats - We love to know how popular our websites and blogs are so we’ll keep checking our stats to see how many hits we’ve had or how many AdSense clicks we’ve racked up in the last 20 minutes.
5. Commuting - Travelling to and from your place of work is usually unproductive time, but does it have to be? Learn a new language, plan your next holiday, read and reply to your emails. The same can be applied to other situations where you don’t need to give the activity 100% focus e.g. listen to an audio book whilst you’re taking a shower.
6. Trashy mags - What does it matter who’s going out with who or who’s gained/lost 20lbs? You may be on your lunch break or sat in the doctor’s waiting room, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be doing something more worthwhile.
7. Playing video games - Everyone loves a bit of fun, but why not play a real game with real people and combine fun with exercise? Not only would you be multi-tasking, but you’d probably be adding some water back into that bucket of yours.

Be honest with yourself. How much time are you wasting away on distractions rather than using that time to work on achieving what you want from your life or spending it with the real people in our lives?

The distractions will always be there. The opportunities and people we care about won’t.

What have you done with your life today?