Top 9 Time Wasters and How To Avoid Them

Poor communication can negatively impact a business, but even on top of these numbers, any failure in communication is also a waste of time.

You not only have to account for the time lost based on poorly communicated plans, but you also have to communicate again to correct these errors.

Most of the time, planning is a great way to avoid wasting time. But there comes a point when it’s possible to overdo the planning process. Because it is possible to overengineer a system or a strategy to do more than you set out to do, increasing the complexity of the plan but not contributing significantly to the overall goal.

Knowing when to stop planning and start doing ensures that you don’t allow your planning to morph into a dreaded time waster.

Possible scenario: you go to a coffee shop to work but end up not doing any work at all. Or perhaps you decide to rent a spot at a coworking space and end up researching nearby co-working spaces for hours.

These distractions from work, no matter how seemingly trivial or distantly relevant, are time wasters. And they can negatively impact your focus, productivity, and your career.

By definition, procrastinating means that you’re avoiding a difficult task—likely in favor of an activity that provides more instant gratification.

But it’s not just the fact that you’re not working that makes procrastination a waste of time. It’s also the fact that often, procrastination is linked to a sense of guilt and poor emotional regulation.

Push notifications are interruptions, and interruptions are time wasters. It takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the original task after an interruption.

What’s worse is that push notifications are not just any interruptions; they’re appealing interruptions, and it’s not difficult to imagine why. Research shows that humans are “hard-wired to follow the path of least resistance.” 

Busywork is work that seems productive but only serves to keep you busy. For example, you’re trying to show that you’re a hard worker and end up doing something that is of little value to the company but keeps you occupied.

Busywork has many causes, but the result is that time passes and you have not done anything of real value. This is arguably the definition of wasted time. 

Nobody can truly do two things simultaneously and well. It makes us slower and less efficient.

This is because what we think of as multitasking is often just really fast toggling between one task and another. And ultimately, all we end up doing is wasting time.