Last update: April 17, 2020
Time is one of the most precious resources we have and one of the best gifts we can give to others. We cannot make up or make up for lost time. Precisely for this reason we must learn to give it the importance it deserves. One way to do this is avoid the activity steals time.
By "stealing time" we mean all those activities that take a long time and do not bring any benefit. In the past they were not very common, but nowadays they are extremely widespread. The problem is that our mind is not at all prepared to avoid them, therefore it is very easy to fall victim to them.
If we want to have a full life, we must know how to recognize time-stealing activities so as to fight them, avoid them or at least limit them. Below we talk about the most common and why they are so dangerous. Are you ready?
Are Time-Stealing Activities Really Dangerous?
The following activities are considered normal by the majority of the population. You may think that it is an exaggeration to consider them time-consuming, but they are dangerous precisely because they go unnoticed. They occupy a large part of our life and do not contribute anything significant to the achievement of our goals.
Let's move on to analyze the main business steals time of our age.
1. Browse social networks
Who hasn't noticed that they have lost track of time by surfing on Facebook or Twitter? Dependence on social networks it has become a real problem in civilized societies. Every day we spend more and more hours on our phone instead of paying attention to the world around us.
The main problem is that surfing on social networks steals the energy we need for everything else. According to some research, spending too much time on these portals has a direct effect on certain areas of the brain. To be exact on the ventral tegmental area, one of the parts that most influences our motivations and our state of mind.
The excess of information and stimuli that come from social networks make us less sensitive to other positive stimuli. The idea is that the more time we spend on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, the harder it will be to feel motivated to do other tasks in real life.
2. Watch TV series
Have you ever opened Netflix with the idea of ​​watching a single episode of a series and little by little, without realizing it, you stayed there for hours? This is the main danger of one of the most common time-stealing activities of our age: watching television series.
It becomes very difficult to stop watching one episode after another of a story that involves and thrills us. It is very difficult for our brains to control the bombardment of stimuli we receive every day. Precisely for this reason, when we stop to watch more than one or two episodes, our energy decreases.
3. Worry too much
The latest time-stealing activity that we analyze has no relation to technology, but to our own mind. Precisely for this reason it is one of the most dangerous. If we constantly think about our problems, our anxiety levels soar and we will feel bad about ourselves. In the meantime, we will neglect the chores we have to get done.
Worrying too much can lead us to procrastinate. This is due to a phenomenon called "analysis paralysis". If there is a problem we don't know how to solve, we spend a lot of time thinking about possible solutions that we end up doing nothing.
Worrying for hours is not a valid strategy for solving a problem. The next time you fall into this time-consuming activity, try to act despite not knowing all the answers or break the cycle of reasoning by paying attention to other matters.
How to deal with these activities is time-consuming
The negative effects of these three activities are very similar: loss of motivation, willpower and knowledge of time. Fortunately, the solution is very simple.
If you want, you can fight even the worst consequences of these time-consuming activities. The best way is limit the time you spend on each of these activities. To do this, simply set an alarm that alerts you when a certain amount of time has passed. The amount of time you dedicate to these activities is up to you, as long as it doesn't affect your whole day.
There is nothing wrong with watching TV series or surfing social networks in a controlled and scheduled way. The problem arises when these activities make us late for appointments, isolate us or reduce our productivity. On the other hand, remember that anxiety fuels this kind of activity, like when we attack the refrigerator.
When anxiety overcomes us because of a problem, instead of letting go, we have to put off worries until the right time comes to think about it. By doing so, these negative feelings will interfere to a lesser extent with daily affairs.
