Mental Health: Stop Wasting Time on Bad Habits

If you ask most people in life, the one thing they say they wish they had more of, beyond money and everyday joys, most people say they wish they had more time. They want more time with family, more time for hobbies, and more time for self-care. If COVID has taught us anything, its the value of time.

While time is one of our most valued resources, it is often the one we waste the most. Every day we find ourselves finding more to distract ourselves in an attempt to “unwind” that we become too used to our downtime. Each moment we waste with outside distractions is the things that eat up most of our time. Not limiting ourselves to shorter periods of social media, television, and “veggin’ out” wastes all the things we could be doing but aren’t.

More Lifestyle: The Science of Physical/Mental Health

But these aren’t the only things that eat up our life. There are plenty of things we can do to balance our lives with the things we want to do, the things that make us happy, and the time we need to recharge. Our routine is the biggest waste of time we can imagine. Not only do we waste time doing things that are easy because they’re part of our day to day routine, but we also get wasteful with those activities as well.

For instance, take our diets for example. If you go in and cook one chicken breast and a cup of rice it doesn’t seem like that big of a meal so we overeat. Break the bad habit. While you’re cooking, measure out that chicken breast to 4-5 oz and split that rice in half. Most chicken breasts bought in stores are 10oz or less. You’d have a meal for dinner and something to bring in to work for lunch the next day as well.

Two meals out of the way in under 20 minutes. You’ll save money, you’ll be eating healthy, and you’ll get back more of the wasted time spent cooking a second meal. As an extra bonus, you’ll spend less time in the grocery store shopping for food because you spread out your meals by not overeating.

Imagine how much of your life you’d get back if you stop over-exhausting your resources. By focusing on the things that waste your energy and time you spend more time recovering. It’s a hard habit to break but once you learn to plan ahead you steal more time from your daily activities. You can rest more and achieve more at the same time. Forming better habits can get your days back on track.