What are the general reasons that you waste time?

Answer 1

The questions that I will answer are three: "Do I waste time? If so, what are the general reasons? What can I do about it?". In these questions, "I" means me, myself, personally. You will see some things about this. I have personalized your question so that it applies to me, and I have divided it into two parts to avoid having to assume that I do actually waste time (or that anyone else does for that matter). Also, I have added a question asking what is to be done about any time-wasting I find. I am not qualified to make an answer that fits everybody. I doubt that anyone is.

If the answer to the first question is 'yes', then, and only then, the second and third questions need an answer. I am not convinced that wasting time is very common. When it happens, then it is almost certainly to be thought of as personal. Perhaps my explanations below will tell you why I think this.

Unlike large organizations that may have thousands of person-hours per day at their disposal, I have only 24. For me, time is a scarce resource, and I dare not waste it. In that span I must sleep, eat, attend to bodily needs, make all the decisions I need to get through the day and meet obligations to others. There will be personal things too. But apart from sleeping, my conscious mind is thinking all the time. Sometimes that thinking is for the benefit of others only, but that is extremely rare, and not wasted time (it is probably obligatory and work-related). Even when thinking is an obligation it will usually benefit me personally in addition to meeting that obligation. I do not consider thinking to be a waste of time usually, and I do not considerthat sister process feeling to be a waste of time. Everybody can feel. Everybody can think also, so I don't consider that so-called IQ has any relevance here.

I say further that as I think, I feel. Both processes happen at the same time, not independently, but working together, as sisters should. I don't think I am at all unusual in this. I believe that you, the reader, are the same. Man is not really a rational animal. We appeal to rationality, but we do not rely on it in making decisions.

It may even be (and I suspect it is) that the dichotomy between thinking and feeling is a delusion. If it is, it is a very common one, for my language, English, has no single word that means precisely both. One could speak of 'inner experience' or 'mind/heart/soul activity', but neither those nor any other word or phrase means simply 'thinking and feeling'. Consider moral matters. These necessarily involve both thinking and feeling.

So I will eliminate that dichotomy, and I will invent a new word (I love doing this). Instead of using 'thinking and feeling'and 'think and feel' I will say 'theeling' and 'theel'. If this is confusing, I apologize, while pointing out that at the same time I am reducing the verbiage and underlining my belief that the two concepts are at least closely linked, if not identical.

This conflation of the two words into one may not be new, for it occurs to me now that those who do not distinguish between 'th' and 'f' may, perhaps unconsciously, have got there before me. They will say 'fink', probably meaning the same fing.

I do not consider theeling to be a waste of time usually, either, for the reasons that follow. (Am I trying to be rational here? It is very ingrained in us.)

So, when can theeling be a waste of time? Notice that this is just another way of asking about simply wasting time, because we theel every waking moment. Perhaps theeling can be a waste of time when I feel sorry for myself or somebody else, particularly if I can do nothing about it. Some would say that daydreaming is a waste of time, but I don't theel that is right -- for me daydreaming is an integral part of making a decision, or of preparing the ground to do that.

However there is another issue to consider. Are there better (more economical, greater value, less time-consuming) ways of theeling? Maybe there are, but that depends on how I rank various activities, and it is a purely personal matter. It is down to me, and in your case, to you. Theel about it.

You may have noticed that so far I have not even mentioned actual physical activity. It is not really necessary. Any apparently time-wasting physical activity will be accompanied by theeling. The two are interdependent. Even something like whittling seemingly witlessly has a matching mode of theeling. It is like doing a boring job -- it does not fully occupy my mind, leaving capacity for theeling.

So apart from theeling sorry for myself for things I can do nothing about, theeling is not a waste of time. In that one instance the second and third questions must be answered -- theeling uselessly regretful is a waste of time, and I should desist. Perhaps I have learned something here -- thank you.

In considering your question, we, you and I, need only theel about the theeling. Nothing else matters. Theel free to tell me if this is not an answer to your question. But theel about it first.

ANSWER

boredom leads to too much thinking and to pass the free time by you take your mind off the things that trouble you,

things that you will almost certainly think about in the free time you have. a lot of things are so boring, like waiting for an appointment, we want that time to go fast instead of slowly, time perception changes depending on all the circumstances and we can change it by 'wasting time'

so to keep your mind occupied you waste time, ie reading usless uninteresting magazine stories, sing a song in your head, think about what you will have for dinner tonight etc

in the sense of wasting time in life and not just the boring free time we get

obviously life is scary, stressful and short and very mundane, most of our lives are waiting for something or someone, the good and exciting bits are really few and far between for most of us

we worry a lot about our troubles and mortality yet are sometimes to do very little about them,

especialy mortality, so we waste our time with jobs, hobbies, interactions, relationships, internet, tv, etc because in the whole life is mundane and those things although seemingly a waste of time are actually our lives, its what makes up our entire life

and we will 'waste the time' until mortality catches up with us

f4

ANI ANSWER I theel that both of your answers were very "inside the box". There is much more to this subject and so many more paths to touch on than you are giving credit.

First of all course their is a word for thinking and feeling its called "Reality" Its what the definition of relative is, your thoughts and your feelings are your reality.

Nothing has to be a waist of time. Take anything you do, playing Video Games, masturbating, what if you didn't call these things a waist of time? After you take this approach nothing you do HAS to be a waist of time. The only thing that is a waist of time, is what you call a waist of time. Each of us are individuals and therefore the previous statement of being only able to describe what a waist of time is for yourself would seem correct, only it isn't. It is very easy to describe what each of us would consider a waist of time. In each human being there is what I consider a higher self, some call it your conscious that speaks to you and helps you decide the correct path in life. A cliche version of this conscious is the Angel and Devil you, on your shoulders. This Higher self knows the answer to every question you have. its what happens when a friend asks you for advice about something and regardless of what you say they go with their intuition, Rarely does an outside source give true advice unless it covers something the first hand person didn't realize, or it parallels the persons intuition. This being said a persons perception of waisting time always follows this guidline of what their higher self wants, vs what they want. and the feeling of waisting time is the guilty feeling of ignoring their higher self's need. (What you REALLY want to be doing)