The Champions League of wasting time

I waste so much time, some would say I was in the Champions League of wasting time, but I changing that.

In university whilst preparing for a cardiology exam I wasted about half my preparation time learning the coagulation cascade, it’s a lot of arrows and letters and doesn’t make for easy learning. In my stubbornness with learning this I didn’t get to cover the rest of the material. And as it turns out all I needed to learn was the handful of drugs that work on it, I focused on the wrong thing, didn’t realise my mistake and had to retake the exam in the summer.

When I was making a landing page for this journal I had to select a background image, I spent the best part of my day off work scrolling through images on Unsplash. So much so I still didn’t find one and had to revisit it twice before realising the image wasn’t as important as having the site live and it could always be changed. 

It is true that almost everyone realises their wastefulness and misdirection in hindsight, but what if there was a skill we could practice to get there quicker and save ourselves and others countless hours, even days. 

By using the simple system of defining and prioritising your to-do list at the start of the day, then summarising what you did, how you did it and when you did it each day. And going back the following morning and reviewing your summary and what you got done versus what you intended. This daily feedback loop is perfect for identifying quickly when you’re focusing on the wrong thing or getting caught up. Add a weekly and monthly review of this feedback and you’ll spot trends in your work that may have taken you years to notice. 

This practice is a skill and although it sounds simple it requires lots of deliberate practice, so we best start putting in the reps.