Chances are you have a few bad habits. And chances are even higher that you waste significantly more time on them than you should. But sometimes it's not you: It's other people, too, is it not?
That inspired today's burning question from Redditor Snipsnapboi, who asked: "What was the biggest waste of time in your life?"
Productivity is an uphill battle.
"Non-productive meetings..."
Non-productive meetings. You don't have to damn meet everyday, especially because everyone just looks at their phones/daydreams during that 30 mins meeting anyway.
"Just got out..."
Just got out of an 8+ year long relationship. Turns out it meant a lot less to him than it did to me. I was looking forward to our future together and now I have nothing to look forward to. I feel like I've wasted my entire adult life so far building this relationship that amounted to nothing.
"When I took an engineering internship..."
College/University in general.
When I took an engineering internship, I couldn't help but think that nothing I was learning in school had ANYTHING to do with the jobs that I or other people were applying for.
When I switched over to finance and marketing, the classes were either far too introductory or just plain too broad to really get anything out of the class.
Gen eds were a complete waste of time. They didn't make me a well-rounded person, they sucked up my money for something that I wasn't going to school for.
Our education system really sucks, but our employment system that treats undergrad degrees as something worthwhile is also a joke.
"Sixish hours..."
GiphyGoing to my cousin's traditional church wedding.
Sixish hours of sheer boredom. Of all the non terrible things that have happened to me, it's probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me.
"A few brought guitars..."
I went to my friend's mother-in-law's redneck funeral. It's was 13 hours of from the time the first eulogy started to leaving the grave site. Every single one of her family members gave eulogy. A few brought guitars and "sang" country songs. Each family member had their own tribute song they wanted played. She wanted her funeral in the town she lived most of her life in, then wanted to be buried in the town she grew up in, 45 miles away. 70 car funeral processions took 3 hours to get from the funeral home to the graveyard. Then another 2 hours beside the grave while more people have eulogies. I had to stay for the whole thing because I was one of the pallbearers. Didn't know her too well but not enough people in her family liked her enough to be one. They also had 3 days of viewing before the funeral. All for a lady I somewhat knew for 15 years who never left her couch.
"Sure, I learned some life skills..."
2 years as a mormon missionary
Sure, I learned some life skills but I could've done that without being a slave to a cult.
"Every year I have to renew my residence status..."
Every year I have to renew my residence status (expat). I waste 4-5 hours waiting just to hand over my application documents. Then 2 weeks later I get a postcard saying my application is approved. Then I go back to wait another 4-5 hours just to get a new residence card. A cumulative 8-10 hours just for documents to change hands.
"My commute."
My commute. Almost two hours each way. Besides listening to music and being on my phone I can't do much. So much time wasted...
"When I was in high school..."
When I was in high school we had this sort of mandatory freshman "retreat" they called it which was basically half of the day we would volunteer at a place then the second half of the day was church followed by a group reflection.
They said that when we volunteered we would be going to locations in the city that "we never would have been." Well, my volunteer location was the school 2 blocks from my house. I lived on the southside of Chicago, so I wasn't super surprised and I guess it made sense since it was a really good private school I was attending with many kids from the suburbs. Honestly, I thought it was kind of hilarious.
What was really annoying though is that even though the volunteering part was the very first thing we did, they still made me come in to my high school first. So, my mom drove me the 30 minutes to my high school (she worked a couple minutes away) then I got on a school bus with some classmates to drive 30 minutes back up to my neighborhood.
Such a stupid waste of my time when I could have just met the group at the school and slept in a little bit that morning.
"Waiting for late appointments."
GiphyWaiting for late appointments. I am a punctual person and have never been late for a meeting or appointment however I am usually left waiting by the other party. It is rude and implies you feel your time is more important than mine.
"It's definitely weed."
It's definitely weed.
South Park put it best when they said weed makes you comfortable with being bored. I spent so much time and so many entire days off stoned out of my gourd watching Netflix or just wandering around the city alone. In the beginning it was fine, because I wasn't shirking any legitimate responsibilities and I was enjoying myself. I'm a big believer that time enjoyed is never time wasted if it's truly free time. But there was a solid two years where I wasn't enjoying that life but I was still living it.
"What did you do over the weekend?"
"Smoked weed and, uh... wandered around, and saw a movie"
"how was the movie?"
"I don't know, I don't remember it."
I could have gotten in shape, learned a new hobby or gone back to school. Nope.
I'm such a better version of myself clean.
"Chatting with one particular person..."
Chatting with one particular person I can't seem to cut loose. There's really no point in us remaining in contact, yet we spend a lot of time communicating.
"School."
School. Almost nothing I learned in those years I've applied to my career.
I wish there was more vocational stuff available, not everyone fits the "sit at a desk for 7 hrs a day and be taught at" model.
DQ: What do you waste the most time on?
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
