There are perhaps some circumstances where the title of this post is wrong, but 99% of time-wasting is either something that you’re doing to yourself, or something that you shouldn’t be willing to put up with.
In the book “The Go-Giver“, Joe is concerned that he might be wasting Pindar’s time, but Pindar assures him that this isn’t possible. In fact, Pindar is discussing his “Condition” in order to make sure that he’s not the one wasting Joe’s time. From the book:
Joe nodded slowly. “I think I understand. You want to make sure I’m not wasting your time. Fair enough.” Pindar smiled. “Joe, no offense, but you don’t have that power.” Joe looked confused. “I mean, the power to waste my time. Only I can do that. And truthfully, it’s a vice I gave up a long time ago. The reason for my Condition is that I don’t want to see you wasting your time.”
Time Wasting
The idea of “wasting time” is interesting to me, as I certainly waste plenty of my own time. I’m wrapping up the end of watching “Better Call Saul”, and while it’s a fascinating and enjoyable show, is it really benefitting me in any way? You could perhaps argue that some downtime and entertainment is fine, and I think it is, but that’s where “wasting time” gets a little gray.
However, I also have calls/coffee with a lot of folks through the course of the week, and one could argue that some of those are time wasters. If they’re not a good fit for our services, am I wasting my time in meeting with them? Not at all. If I continued to meet with the same people over and over it could drift into time wasting, but that’s up to me to control.
If you keep your priorities straight, you and you alone can keep control of whether you’re wasting your time or not.
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