Wasting Time

As I have gotten older, not that I'm really old by any means. I've begun to place more value on my time. This is probably not a thing unique to me, however it is interesting to explore why the way I view my time has changed.

Growing up you are forced along the self improvement path, you have to go to school, and while there you learn and grow as a person. So it's easy to get home and goof off and not feel bad about it. You're improving at a constant rate anyway so this is a good time to play and build social bonds while doing so. Messing around in your free time doesn't feel like wasting time because a) it's not really, you're subconsciously processing information you've learned and b) you're a kid, you don't care.

Once you leave school, however, you are no longer forced to improve. When starting a new job, once you have reached a level of competency that allows you to do your job well enough to keep it, you don't really need to improve more. I think this is what has been bothering me. Work is the thing I do to earn money to live, but it doesn't often require me to improve in substantial ways.

For example, one job I had was creating plans for new developments, when I started there was a good list of skills I needed to develop to get to a point where I could complete all the tasks required of me without needing to ask for help. After about 2 years I got to that point. Really the largest chunk of tasks did not take nearly this long to become proficient in, but getting proficient in the last 20% of the skills took most of the time here. So for most of the time at the job I was not consistently improving, rather it would come in little spurts when the opportunity arose that I needed to learn one of the more niche skills.

My point here is that once you reach a level of proficiency you no longer need to improve in order to sustain your job/lifestyle. After continuously improving for my entire life up until this point, it feels wrong to not be learning and improving.

Am I wasting my time at the job since I am not learning things? Maybe. In the case of the job, you would still be earning money, which is required to, like, live and crap. So while rationally it wouldn't be wasting time, it sure feels like it sometimes.

Now, I need to preface this next part with: of course I know you need time to relax and rest.

But you can absolutely waste time.

Once you've worked, and came home, and done chores, and cooked dinner, and had some rest, there may not be much time left. But at some point, there will be some time where "resting" for longer is wasting time.

There's a lot of ways others can waste your time, in the form of ads, games having arbitrary time requirements, unnecessary bureaucracy, traffic, etc...

Wasting your own time, though, can be both good and bad. Purposefully wasting time can be a form of rest or even revenge. It can be rest in that I may consider sitting around watching youtube or some other show a "waste" of time, but I may be using that time to decompress or just enjoy some time off. It can be a form of revenge in the same way that staying up too late to get that free time that was taken from you back (colloquially known as "revenge bedtime procrastination") is. You may feel burnt out from working too hard and still have things that need to get done at home. Wasting some time when you should be doing chores feels like revenge. Revenge against what? The universe? I don't know, usually the only one being hurt is yourself, but it does feel good while you're doing it.

Regarding bad wasted time though, there's a saying "wasted time enjoyed isn't wasted time at all." And I would agree. I think a hallmark of wasted time is not enjoying it, or regretting it later. Sure in the moment I may enjoy playing video games for half my evening, but if I regret it later is it still "enjoyed" time? This feels like it might be dependent on the individual, but I'll have more time to regret it than I will time enjoying it. Personally I've been mid game where my thinking goes from moderately having fun to thinking of other things I wish I was doing. Not like ethereal, potential things that could possibly make my life better but concrete, man I wish I was doing "thing" right now.

Wasting time via video games.

Switching from moderately enjoying something to wishing I was doing something else is most often felt when playing my most love/hate game Smite, usually if I'm playing alone. As I mentioned, I feel like play with other people isn't wasted time, as it's often a good time to further strengthen bonds between people. If I'm playing alone, however, I often get caught up on what I am getting out of what I'm doing. Playing the same game you've played before can be comforting, you know what is coming next and the enjoyment can be gained from doing it well or viewing the same thing with the lens of experience. However there's always an opportunity cost associated with everything you do. Often it's entirely unhelpful to think about this as it can distract you and make you feel worse about something you may have to do. But in this case it can be a good sanity check to decide if it's even worth it to continue.

Lately I've been more on the page of video games just not being that great as far as media goes. Most things only give you as much as you put into them, and I feel like video games are something that is very easy to give very little to. Compared to say, reading a book. The game gives me a visual representation of what is happening, will often verbally tell me the story, and often keeps a log of everything that is happening. A book requires me to actually read more than item descriptions and flavor text, requires me to visualize what is happening, and keep an idea of what has happened so far (unless I want to go back and reread half the book).

My point here being that I feel that is is easier to waste times with video games than some other forms of media.

External time wasters

What do I mean by this? Really I just mean someone or something other than you wasting your time. The big offenders in my book are advertisements and traffic, however we can also include incompetence and lengthy writing that doesn't get to the point and repeats things (so my writing).

I could go on ad nauseam on advertisements and traffic, and I will, at another time. The short version of my rant on these is that they add nothing to your life, and waste both your time and money.

Incompetence can waste your time in myriad ways including but not limited to: someone not qualified at their job taking longer than they should, bad drivers, someone forgetting something important that has a domino effect for later processes. This is honestly the most forgivable one to me, people and processes will be incompetent, it's just a fact of life, and having a higher tolerance for this will save you a lot of stress.

Not getting to the point and repeating things is more annoying than anything else, it's not realistic to expect everyone to be good at conveying their point, so it doesn't make sense to get too annoyed if you're just talking to someone. Most of my annoyance with this comes from articles or videos where the presenter has had time to prepare beforehand. I'd rather them take a little more of their time to save a ton of other peoples (got to remember to take my own advice).

What does it all mean?

You've only got so much time in your life, and little bits of wasting it can really add up. I think it's important to find a balance of paying attention to your time in a way that prevents you from wasting too much and also keeps you sane. Paying too much attention to every bit of your time that is wasted can really consume your mind and tank your mental health. However being intentional with your time can really help you to become more skilled and informed, which are generally pretty good things.