Question

What have you most recently concluded is a waste of time and eliminated from your life?

Comments

[Sybil]

Making my bed every morning.
Washing my dishes after every meal.
Taking off makeup every night.

I NEED to eliminate worrying about really dumb things.

[mr. NBT]

UNC basketball. That's not recent, though...

the hope of getting back together with my ex-boyfriend.

[Littoral]

TV

[PG]

"Taking off makeup every night" might not be a good thing to eliminate unless you also eliminated "Putting on makeup every morning." I've never worn makeup on regular basis precisely because I will go to bed without washing it off properly, which is bad for one's skin.

I haven't managed to eliminate any timewasters from my life lately, but I desperately need to do so. I've never spent much time on any of the things already mentioned.

[Al Wheeler]

A 130-minute commute (each way). I'm spending $300 a month more to take an express that knocks it down to 90 minutes.

[Emily]

Worrying about things I can't control (or at least worrying less about them).

[Greg]

* 40 minute commute
* yard work / snow removal
* waiting for the lake to thaw so I can go sailing again
(moved to Phoenix to apartment near new job)

[l.]

Walking to class. I dread it every day. It's more practical and better for the environment and driving six blocks goes against everything I believe about being a good citizen. But I dread that damn walk every day. So I stopped.

[MC]

Love

[Jane]

I stopped taking the bus. I'd get myself to the park and ride a mile from my house and take the bus the remaining 15 miles. Save on gas, help the environment, save on parking, etc. All the good reasons you should use public transportation. But like the former six-block-walker, I dreaded it every day. It added at least 25 minutes to my travel time each way.

In terms of the net impact on the earth, this was probably not a good decision, but in terms of my personal well-being, it's definitely a positive thing.

[Carol Anne]

I can't think of anything recent, but this one made a huge difference when I quit doing it: making painstaking, detailed comments on my students' papers.

I used to flag every single grammar error, and write a comment in the margin about every paragraph, and write a whole paragraph of commentary at the end of the essay.

Not only was this wasting my time; when I did it, the students made corrections everywhere I marked, and nowhere else. And a lot of the time, the response was not what I desired -- for example, if a student had a problem with transitions, I might write, "Can you show how this paragraph relates to the preceding one?" Inevitably, the student would delete the paragraph -- and then would tell me, "You said that paragraph didn't fit, so that's why I got rid of it."

Now, I use a separate sheet of paper, and I make my comments brief: "Work on making transitions between paragraphs to show how ideas connect to each other." "Watch out for run-on sentences." Now, it's up to the students to find the problems and make improvements, since I haven't marked the run-on sentences -- or anything else specific -- for them. When I return papers to students, I hold "mini-conferences" that allow me to explain more clearly what I'm looking for in the students' writing, and that give the students an opportunity to ask specific questions about how to improve the writing.

The end result is that I don't have to work so hard on grading, and the students learn how to develop their own strategies to improve their writing. I have come to realize that when I was doing so much work, I was doing the students' work for them. Now, the responsibility for writing well is back where it belongs, with the students.

[Slice]

Writing out the full month when I put the date on my checks.

[wab]

Balancing my checkbook

[girltuesday]

washing my hair every day.

[a]

shaving my legs regularly. not a recent thing, but one that i've definately found to be a total waste of time.

also: answering the phone just to say i'm too busy to talk on the phone. don't answer it!

[Nina]

I stopped working hard 1)on relationship that does not work - be it friendship or romantic involvements. I'll give a try to this "if it does not happen easy - then it's not supposed to be"; 2)on trying to clean appartment on my own - I can hire someone when I need help; 3) trying to make conventional organizing work for me - guess given that I have 4 Masters degrees, work 100 hours a week AND have an ADD, does not make me a "conventional person", so I stopped pretending I'm the one; 3) TV - I replaced it with Netflix subscription; 4) on listening to advices from people, who have never been in a situation similar to mine - I'm starting believing in this "in her shoes" approach;

Thanks for asking this question - I'm going through a "spring mental cleaning", and it gave a structure to my thinking.

[Jenny]

seeing the glass half full

[Rhea]

Certain friends. Not to be cruel, just that I'd changed.

[_]

Reading this blog... jk

[Abby]

Trying to predict the future.

[LW]

Trying to help my parents with their computer issues. *banging head against desk*

Time for me to quit this blog. The narrative arc has stalled and the author is headed to a place I don't want to go.

Why do you feel the need to state that? move on