How many of you would agree that wasting time is hard work?
Like you, I’ve had those lazy days of laying on the couch and doing nothing. Midway through the day I always find myself having a hard time looking for something to watch on TV. It doesn’t matter that I have the best prescription for a lazy day, My phone in one hand streaming through my social media feeds and the remote in the other.
Hulu, Prime video, Netflix, each with new and original content I could be watching. It doesn’t matter how good the shows are, I’ll never know. Somehow I always endlessly scroll through all the options and ultimately fall back to old reruns.
What is the solution?
Turn your biggest indulgence into a resource. We all have them. If you enjoy watching TV, turn to informational shows or documentaries on things you enjoy, if you typically spend hours on end listening to music take one of those hours and start listening to podcasts, if you spend hours on end on social media find out if there is any value to the content you are posting and build off of that.
Our Cell phones in this day and age are our biggest tools, our biggest resources. I am a believer in using the time we spend on our phones to our advantage rather than an additional time-wasting tool. If you like to write, write on your phone, if you like to read your phone gives you the ability to carry your books with you everywhere you go, if you don’t like to read listen to the latest podcast.
Organize your to do list
There is a difference between taking a much needed mental health day after days, weeks or months of working hard; and procrastinating when you have a full to do list. Listen to your mind and body, you will quickly know the difference between the two.
Before you beat yourself up for not getting anything done once you realize half the day is over and you’re still sitting on the couch. Take a second to organize your to do list in order of importance. Take care of the most important thing on your list and see how you feel. If you have some time and want to keep going, tackle the next one and then the next one.
Don’t try to do it all at once
A lot of times we are paralyzed by how many things we need to get done and the immediate defensive reaction is to leave it all for the next day so we don’t have to make any decisions. This wouldn’t be too bad except tomorrow usually looks a lot like yesterday.
There is a certain satisfaction that comes from accomplishing a task that is on our to do list. The latest thing I did and was putting off for months was doing some spring cleaning around my home, it felt great getting rid of old things and clearing up all the clutter. I was left with this great feeling of accomplishment but was also left asking myself “what took you so long?”.
On a small scale it doesn’t seem too bad because of the level importance of spring cleaning but if we think about how many other things we’re putting off in the same way on a bigger scale things start to look more serious.
Maybe you had plans of going back to school, plans of starting your own business, or maybe you’ve been thinking about fixing a relationship with someone close to you.
Whatever it may be, we have to stop saying or thinking I’ll take care of it tomorrow. Odds are we won’t.
The first step is in the importance of the task to you. If its important make it a priority. If its not, be honest with yourself and stopping saying you’re going to do it.
Creating a new habit is hard, but it is always worth it in the end.