The Time Thieves — the Worst Thieves

Some of the greatest battles of all time were fought for one thing freedom. Freedom can have many connotations. Regardless, the ability to control your own time is a core part of it.

The worst punishment you can ever give a man is to take his time. Basically taking his freedom. Think about it, the time taken from a man can be used to justify the level of atrocities he has committed. Capital offenses are given huge sentences or even a life sentence.

As much as time is important, at the end of the day we end up losing most of it. Where do we lose it you might ask? We lose it to the thieves. I am calling them thieves because they do it against our will. You might be binge-watching Facebook videos but deep down you desperately need to finish a pending task. Below are some of the thieves you should watch out for.

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Slippery Friends — They often keep you waiting, complaining about it doesn’t change anything

We all have different categories of slippery friends. The ones I loathe the most are those that waste your time. These end up stealing your time multiple times in disguise.

Ever been in a situation where a friend keeps you waiting? Worse, it happens again, and again. You get pissed off and complain about it. Even after complaining the same habit keeps popping up? Eventually, you are forced to add them to your slippery friend’s list.

Going through such an experience can be heart recking. This negatively affects your schedule and your life. Your to-do list gets disrupted every single time it happens. This encourages procrastination, the things you were to do stay in limbo. Eventually, you have no other option other than to keep postponing them.

What you can do about it

“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” — David Tyson

Lean back — you don’t have to be with a friend who robs your time. They might check all the tick boxes but when it comes to time, they are poor managers. In such a situation the best thing to do is lean back. In true friends, leaning back and giving each other time doesn’t change a thing.

The next best thing you can do is to improve the quality of your friends.

“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.” — Thomas J. Watson

I know it sounds weird since you don’t get to actively choose your friends but you can be intentional with who becomes your friend. The best thing is that once you align yourself with a no-wasting time mindset, it’s highly likely you will attract friends who don’t waste your time. Not unless when you are both intentional about it.

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Social Media Apps — They Sell Your Time to Advertisers, You Can Do Something About It

I am not against social media, everything has its purpose, time, and place. If used appropriately social media can be of great significance to a user.

“Time is money.”— Benjamin Franklin

If it’s not making you money, it’s losing you money. If they are not selling you a product, you are the product. These social media apps steal your time, and for what really? They call it entertainment, but again, why do they have to force it on you by using filthy tactics.

They know what they are doing and they know it’s wrong, but they grew a thick skin. It’s like fornicating the first time and fornicating again the 30th time.

It’s been scientifically proven excessive social media use affects a person’s job performance. Another recent study proved that social media use negatively predicted the performance of university students.

As a victim, there is something you can do about it. It’s said over 90% of unsuccessful individuals know what they need to do to be successful. But they don’t do it, instead, they opt to do other things. If you haven’t attained the level of success that you what, why not go do that.

What you can do about it

The first step to take is to take control. Be in-charge. This means accessing social media on your own terms, not because a notification popped up. You do this by blocking your social media notifications or completely disabling them.

By doing the above you start buying your freedom back. You start building your focus and awareness. You are no longer on a social media flight that flies you around for the whole day. You get intentional with accessing social media.

The next big tip is to have social media time. I used to access social media during my daytime breaks. I realized this wasn’t good. It used to negatively impact my work energy. It always felt different when getting back to my work after accessing social media.

A break should be a time to relax, not to bug your brain with social media. Clearing your brain during a break can be powerful. Social media does the opposite of that, filling your brain with videos and memes.

The solution to this is to have social media time. A set time when you can freely access social media. This can be an hour a day, two hours a day, or maybe from a certain time of the day till you go to bed i.e. from 8 p.m. till bedtime.

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“We’re our own worst enemy and our own best friend.” — Donna Goddard, Circles of Separation

Beyond what is shared, the rest mostly relies on us. Let us not be our own worst enemy. Let’s choose to use our time wisely.

Life and success are all about choices. You can often choose to do something unproductive instead of focusing on your work. No one will question you, doing this only hurts you. In this case, you are your own enemy.

On the other hand, you can choose to be your own best friend. Doing activities that shape you as a person by avoiding wasting time. Waking up every morning to be a better version of yourself.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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