The Most Wasted Resource
We waste a lot of things in this world. Food, money, paper, plastic, whatever you can think of. We tend to use things inefficiently, and naturally, we tend to not care very much about the effects our wastage has on our lives.
Surprisingly, our most wasted resource is none of these things.
It’s one little intangible thing that we are constantly surrounded by.
Time.
We are constantly wasting our time. One of the biggest causes of any resource wastage is mismanagement.
“I want to get to the gym, but I don’t have the time.”
“I don’t have the time to do that.”
“I wish there was more time in the day.”
We view the time that we have as a shortage when we need to get stuff done, but when there’s the pleasurable things, we act like we have an infinite supply of it. Lazing away on the couch and watching TV used to be how people wasted their time, but nowadays we just duck our heads into our phone and doom scroll Instagram.
I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place to relax. There definitely is, and it’s vital that you have some relaxation to keep your mental health together. But really, how many other things are we wasting time on?
Is it really worth staying the extra hours at work for a boss that doesn’t appreciate you?
That time could be spent in pursuit of your hobby, or spending it with family, friends — that time you are giving to work isn’t just being given to work, it’s being taken away from something else. God forbid, it’s being taken away from your sleep, which you need to function as a human being.
Part of time management is knowing what to cut out. It’s not just scheduling your day with a ton of tasks and getting them all done at their designated time. It’s also leaving space, emptying out your business and occasionally, saying “To hell with it! I’m not doing that!”
So when you’re piling up the week with all sorts of commitments and obligations, be mindful that little resource we often ignore.
