How to Stop Wasting Time
Episode #312
Hello Friends,
Seneca’s very first chapter in Letters From a Stoic is titled “On the Use of Time”. Time is something that is very paradoxical in the sense that we never feel like we have enough, yet our lives are longer than anything else we will do. Put another way, our days are often long while our days are short.
Another curious thing about time is that we all have the same amount everyday - 24 hours - yet we all use it in different ways. Some of us use it for productivity, others for pleasure, and yet others are oblivious because they are in a state of suffering. But what constitutes time well spent? What is wasted time? And how can we go about not wasting much of it?
The audio version of this episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and wherever else you listen to your podcasts.
Why is Time Consideration Important?
It may or may not be obvious, but let’s first set the stage by going into why we should be considerate of our time. The first one is very obvious - we only have so much of it
We know that we only have 24 hours in one day. However, we do not know how many days we have in life. We can make some rough assumptions. We can assume that we will live to the average lifespan expectancy, which is 77 years old in the USA. Maybe our genes are better, and maybe we take care of ourselves better, and that’s something that you’ll have to think about.
77 years is 924 months, 4,004 weeks, 28,028 days, 672,672 hours, 40 million minutes, and 2.4 billion seconds.
The point is that we can put a number to how long you will live. We don’t know exactly what that number is, but we do know that it’s finite. We know that it’ll run out. Imagine how quick a week goes by. It’s like a blink of an eye. Think: we are at the end of March of 2024. It seems like we just had Christmas. That’s three months gone, and you only have 924 of these (not left, but total).
Life is so damn short it’s tragic. That’s why we have to make the best of what we have while we are here. Manage your time. Consider what you are doing with your days, weeks, months, and years because, whether you like to admit it or not, your time on this earth is finite.
What is Wasted Time?
We will look at this practically shortly, but let’s get abstract for a minute. Wasted time, in the Stoic sense, is time spent not living according to nature. That’s very abstract. Perhaps we could define it more clearly
.Wasted time is time spent not acting appropriately. Not doing your duty. Not being kind, considerate, wise, contemplative, etc. It’s time spent engaging in vice. Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to be perfect. Stoics are not perfect, by definition; sages are. What matters, as a Stoic, is that you act appropriately.
Let’s go through some examples of what wasted time looks like. Worrying about something that is not up to you, like the weather. Showing up late to work (the time wasted is time presumably sleeping in). Arguing defensively about something that you know is wrong but that your ego is telling you to get defensive about. Grieving past its due (grief is a natural emotion but life does have to go on eventually. Some grief would be appropriate). Two hours a day on social media. Sleeping in every day. Holding a grudge.
This list has the potential to be massive. I hope, though, that all of those things I listed you would agree with. Wasted time is when we act inapproriately in relation to our place in the world.
We can use my anaology of a guitar. You are a guitar string, aiming to play in harmony with the other strings. Acting appropriately means playing your note as good as you can. Acting inappropriately means being intentionally out of tune, or refusing to play your note at all.
Let’s Do Some Math
When we thin abstractly, such as “social media is a waste of time”, it can be hard for it to hit our strings. But if we do some math and put numbers to some of this stuff, it becomes a bit more clear how important this is.
Let’s say you spend 2 hours on social media a day (which is a little less than what the average is, according to datareportal.com). And let’s say you’re 30 years old. That’s 2 hours a day, or 730 hours a year, or 34,334 hours in your remaining 47 years. That’s 1,431 days, 204 weeks, or just under 4 years!
When you’re on your deathbed, are you going to be happy thinking about how you wasted 4 years of your very short life on social media?
Let’s go through some more numbers. If you spend 30 minutes going to work every day, and you get bothered by traffic. You get angry. You get pissed off. You give people the finger. That’s an hour a day driving. You likely are pissed off afterwards, too, so it may actually be closer to 1.5 or 2 hours a day. But let’s assume it’s just while you’re driving.
That’s 2 years of your life spent in anger, just because of traffic!
If you sleep in an extra hour a day, that’s 2 years wasted. If you sleep in an extra 2 hours a day, that’s 4 years wasted.
How Should We Spend Our Time?
I hope I got you at least a little scared, now. Life is short, dear listener. It doesn’t feel like it is day-to-day, but it increasingly does year-to-year and decade-to-decade.
How should we spend our time, then? Isn’t that the million-dollar question?
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time given to us.”
Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
Let's set the foundation. 8 hours of your day should be dedicated to sleep. I don’t care how important you think sending that 1 A.M text to your latest Tinder match is - it’s not nearly as important as putting that phone down and getting some sleep.
The reason this is so vital is that it sets your hormone rhythm, and regulates your mood. It’s very difficult to be in a good mood when your sleep is dysregulated. So make that an absolute priority. Get away from screens and bright lights at least an hour before bed, and stop eating and drinking a couple of hours before bed.
Go to bed at the same time every night, and wake up at the same time every morning (within 30-60 minutes).
That’s one-third of your time gone, but without that one-third investment, nothing else you do will be good.
Next, (surprise, surprise) make sure you get at least an hour of exercise a day. This means you’re practicing physical fitness as well as mental fitness. Three days a week, lift some weights. Three days a week, do some light to moderate cardio (that could include hiking). And one day a week, get your heart rate up by doing high-intensity circuits. Four minutes of intensity followed by 4 minutes of rest for 4 to 6 sets is a good rule of thumb.
Remember that, yes, training the body is vital for health and longevity, but it’s also really important as part of training the mind.
“The body should be treated rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.”
Seneca
Let’s assume that you have about 2 hours a day dedicated to cooking, eating, cleaning, and any other daily life tasks. Perhaps your commute takes an hour. That leaves us with 12 hours left. That’s a lot of time. Put another way, that’s 12 hours a day that are not wasted, just like that. So how do we spend the remaining 12 hours?
Everyone has different work schedules, but let’s assume that you work 40 hours a week. That’s 6-8 hours a day dedicated to work. You’ll have some days completely off (hopefully). But what you’ll notice is that work takes up at least half of the remaining time you have left.
What I’m implying there is that you better damn well not hate your job. I could say that you should love your job, and you should. But if you simply don’t hate it, that’s a win. Remember: we work to pay our bills, stay alive, and contribute to the greater whole - all of that simultaneously.
If you can get a job that aligns you with your nature, is beneficial to the world, your coworkers are good people, and pays your bills - you are truly blessed. Get down on your knees right now and be grateful for that. If one of those things is missing, well, you may have agency to switch jobs. And if you don’t, you certainly have the agency to change your perspective on your job.
But understand that your work is a huge part of your time. It’s worth putting the focus into getting that equation right. And if you do, then all of a sudden 18 to 20 hours of your are not wasted. Now, that assumes that you’re actually working at work and not goofing around on social media (see what I mentioned earlier). But if you enjoy your work, you won’t be doing that.
What’s left? 4 to 6 hours. That’s a huge amount of time.
What you do in the remaining 4 to 6 hours depends on your personal nature, who you have in your life, the context of your life, and so on. I can’t decide what you do with your remaining hours. However, here are some things that are absolutely NOT a waste of time.
Intentionally reading. This is vital for philosophy, of course, but perhaps it’s reading the latest in medical research to become a better nurse.
Journaling. I hope I don’t have to explain the importance of this!
Volunteering. Can you help cook food at a shelter?
Getting involved in your community. Can you coach the high school basketball team?
Spending time with family and friends. Remember - all of your loved ones are mortal. Don’t take them for granted.
Contemplation. We could also call this “meditation”. Again, these are Stoic practices.
Cooking bread for your neighbour. (This is a personal one).
Filling your own cup. Are you introverted and need the remaining 4 hours to be alone? That’s okay!
Playing or listening to music. This is a spiritual practice that teaches you the harmony of Stoicism.
Must I Always Be Intentional?
I understand that many may look at this and think that perhaps it’s a bit overkill. I mean, do we really need to be intentional with our time 24/7?
Absolutely.
Remember how much an hour adds up over 40 years.
Now: that does not mean that you can’t factor in some time to do some unintentional things. But that must be done intentionally. You must intentionally set aside some time for unintentionality.
What does that look like in practice?
Perhaps you give yourself an hour a day for leisure. Perhaps you limit your evening Netflix watching to an hour. Perhaps you overlap some tasks. When you do light cardio, for example, you can also listen to podcasts or watch your favourite show.
And let me be clear: don’t beat yourself up for falling short of perfection. Time is short, remember, and beating yourself up is a massive time waster.
Closing Remarks
I’ll say it again: life is short. We shouldn’t get too caught up in planning out every moment of our day, but we should be intentional in how we spend our time so that we can live a full life.
If you find yourself concerned about death, recall that Socrates went to death voluntarily. Why? Because he was intentional with his time throughout his life. As Seneca remarks,
“Life is long enough if we know how to use it.”
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Brandon Tumblin is most well-known for his podcast, The Strong Stoic Podcast, where he discusses philosophical ideas (solo and guest episodes).
Brandon is also a writer for THE STOIC, the official journal of The Stoic Gym.
Fabulous essay! Wonderful information therein! The statistics were terrific. Thank you so much Brandon.