Why ‘Wasted Time’ Isn’t Wasted Time

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

If you are a human being, you will almost certainly have regretted doing certain things with your life that you subsequently considered to have been a waste of your time. It may have been time spent in a soul-destroying job, enduring a toxic relationship or simply a period of years when you seemed to lack productivity and direction.

It’s true that there are many things in life that one can waste. You can, for example, waste food by not eating it before it passes its ‘use by’ date, or waste money on products or experiences that bring no pleasure or other tangible benefit to your life.

Wasted time, however, is a rather different phenomenon – and in many ways, not wasted time at all.

What Makes Us Regret ‘Wasted Time’ So Much?

Although we all know that even when we are genuinely convinced that we have wasted our time on something and cannot get that time back,it is not so much this that consumes us, as a persistent feeling of ‘what could have been’.

All too often, in response to perceived‘wasted time’,our tendency is to create an alternative scenario in our head – one that represents a very-best-case outcome, rather than what is more likely to have occurred given the inherent fluidity, interconnectedness and unpredictability of life.

There are simply too many variables involved in any imagined ‘alternative scenario’ for us to be able to predict with any certainty, what ‘would’ have happened had we decided to spend our time differently.

The truth is that while you may, indeed, have been in a better position in life now if you had chosen a different path, you could also conceivably have been in a worse one – whether or not you ‘wasted’ any of your time.

It is simply impossible to prove ‘what could have been’ if you had taken an alternative action in terms of how you spent your time.

Make The Most Of, And Embrace Your ‘Wasted Time’

Even if you now resolve to cease wasting your time, it is inevitable that at some point in the future, you will do so again – that is, if there is really such thing as ‘wasted time’.

Was that time in an unfulfilling job genuinely ‘wasted’ if it taught you what you didn’t want in a job, and the importance of finding alternative and more satisfying work? What about that period of debt you went through – didn’t it help you to become more skilled in the management of your money?

I could go on and on but you’re probably coming to understand my point -that time doesn’t have to be seen as ‘wasted’ when it can be seen as ultimately having helped you towards a goal and thereby enhanced your experience of life.

So, don’t be afraid to use your time to contact me, Tamar Posner, for further discussion in relation to any of the subjects addressed on my blog, and how my Counselling Services In Queen’s Park could help you to move on with your life. I am available Via This Online Contact Form, or you may wish to call me on 07710 01 99 33.

I shall leave you with a haiku I wrote recently that expresses some of my thoughts on time:

‘Tis not stolen time

Nor have I borrowed this time

This time is all mine.