That One Simple Trick That Helps Reduce My Time-Wasting Habit

5 Seconds Summary:

Adapting Naval Ravikant’s thinking of giving monetary value of how we worth at an hourly rate, we could be able to reduce the time-wasting activity. The idea is to first value our rate, identify the most wasted time of the day and consciously replaced it with something more meaningful.

-It’s by giving value to how much I am worth at an hourly rate.

Last weekend we watched The Adam Project on Netflix. Basically, it’s about time travel where the main actor travels back in time to fix things.

No matter how interesting it may sound, the chances of going back in time or having the time that we have lost are not possible. At all.

That makes the time the most valuable resource that we have. (You don’t’ say?)

The thing is, even though we are 100% agree with the statement, chances are, we might not value the time as much as we should.

Up till this age, I am still searching to find the best way to make the most out of the time that I have.

No, I don’t mean we need to work all the time.

What I mean is we should utilize time as it should.

Is using time on Tik Tok or Instagram considered a waste of time?

Well, depends on the context.

If you use it to grow your business, or maybe learn something in the most fun and quirky way, I’ll say, it’s not wasting time as much.

But, if it is just for pure entertainment without any limitations and boundaries, that’s abusing time that we have given.

By knowing the purpose of doing things, we are eliminating the possibility of wasting time.

How to identify that you are wasting time?

Simple, track your day.

The moment you realized that you are complacent about how you live and the screen time is way higher than normal, track your time.

You can use 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15-minute gap. Whatever you feel needed.

For me, I will track every 30 minutes.

What I have realized when I track is that the brief period of 30-minute doom-scrolling when repeated 4 times is equal to 2 hours of my precious time getting wasted for nothing,

2 hours for a week is equal to 14 hours!

The 14 hours lost can be used to learn new skills, read books, or even spend time with my family rather than get lost in the algorithm.

Most of the time, we don’t realize how much time is wasted unless we track them

The first step in identifying my time-wasting habit is by tracking the time I have used.

How to reduce time-wasting activity?

Using the simple trick of rating how much you are worth per hour.

Based on your qualifications, skills &  talents decide how many dollars per hour your value is.

Next, identify what is additional soft skills  and interest that differs you from the crowd

For example, you have a professional degree,  and you are good at drawing comics. With the degree, the rate according to the market might be around 1000 dollars per hour, plus the skill that you have, people might pay you maybe an extra 500

So, 1500 dollars per hour.

But you know you’re worth more than that.

It doesn’t matter if you rate yourself higher than you should (#self-confidence)

When you had approximate your rate in an hour, chances are, you are able to calculate how much money you have lost inside your head every time you wasting-time.

“No one is going to value you more than you value yourself. You just have to set a very high personal hour rate and you have to stick to it. Even when I was young, I just decided I was worth a lot more than the market thought I was worth, and I started treating myself that way”

–Naval Ravikant

*GOOSEBUMPS*

He is true though. No one is going to value us most but us.  So if we value ourselves in such ways, will we still drown ourselves with time-wasting activities?

Most likely no. this is what he meant in the last statement

… I started treating myself that way”

Treat yourself the way you are supposed to be worth

With this indication in mind, it leads to 2 thing

One, we are self-conscious of our worth or value and appreciate ourselves more

Number two is, we lead our life in a way that aligns with the value.

If you know your worth is 1000 USD per hour, will you just waste 3 hours scrolling Tik Tok to just wasting time?

Of course not.

“ Always factor your time in every decision”

Every decision, action is related to time. The more time we waste, the more we will be at a disadvantage.”

-Naval Ravikant

Wise words.

The problem with us time-waster is that we don’t value time as it should.

The 1-hour doom-scrolling can be replaced with something else that can increase our worth.

Does this mean I can’t use social media, at all?

No, but do it with intentions. And keep in mind your value as you use it.

 

“ set a very high hourly aspirational rate for yourself and stick to it. It should seem and feel absurdly high, if it doesn’t, it’s not high enough..”

-Naval Ravikant

Identify the time when the most time-wasting activities happen.

Mine would be after coming back from work in the afternoon

Because I’m tired and I feel like I deserved it.

The problem is I know I should use the time to work out or even prepare dinner. But most of the time I will just randomly scroll.

I did the extreme as I don’t have any self-control.

I deleted the apps. Out of sight, out of mind.

And, I replace it with just lying down doing nothing. Yes, that’s what I did.

I know I’m tired and I need to rest for a while. But without the phone, I will feel bored for the next 10 minutes.

I am tired but too bored of doing nothing that I will eventually get up to do something else.

It’s quite funny how simple this may sound but it works.

Let yourself soak the boredom and see what happens next.

So just try to implement this mindset and see what happens next.

You don’t want to waste another 1000 USD don’t you?

 

 

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