Not to be the barer of bad news, but we don’t have time to do everything we want in life. No matter how hard we try, we don’t have time to read all the books, watch all the films or do everything that we have on our ever-growing to-do list.

I know that sounds very doom and gloom but I feel like it’s something we should all be aware of. It’s a lesson that teaches us to focus on the things that really matter the most to us.

Instead of focusing on trying to complete everything, it’s a good idea to know what matters the most to you and work on those things. Having a clear focus helps up to eliminate the unnecessary and live an intentional life.

How can we live more intentionally?

I’ve spoken about this a few time before on my blog, but as a simple explanation, intentional living helps to us to focus on our goals and live a life that puts those goals at the front of our lives.

In it’s simplest form, intentional living to knowing what you want from life and focusing on that.

Related post: 7 Ways To Live A More Intentional Life

What is getting in our way?

Doomscrolling

You may have hard the phrase doomscrolling online a lot recently as it seems to be a pretty hot topic. But what is doomscrolling? It’s when you spend a lot of screen time reading or watching negative stuff. For example, I often find myself doomscrolling on Twitter when another person gets cancelled for whatever reason it is this time. I am nosey and want to know what is going on but ultimately, this makes me feel angry or upset and isn’t actually helping my own life in the slightest.

Instead of doomscrolling, try putting down your phone and chatting to a loved one, going for a walk or making yourself a cup of tea. Even if you just put down your phone for two minutes, you’ve taken yourself away from that negative mind space and distracted yourself with something much more positive. No one can convince me that a cup of tea isn’t going to make someone feel happier.

Not giving everything in your home a place to live

I wonder how much of our lives is looking for something within our homes. It’s always extra annoying when we know we have it and need it in that moment but can’t find it anywhere. This is why it’s so helpful to give all your belonging a home and always try to put them back when you’re doing using them. Imagine how easy things would be to find if you already knew where everything was.

Attending an event that has no value just because you were worried about saying no

Events feel like they constantly pop up. Someone is always getting married or there’s a convention that you just really want to go to. No matter what kind of event it is, they require a lot from us. Attending an event requires money, time from your day, planning and so much more. The problem is that the events we don’t actually want to go to but do out of a sense of obligation, take us these resources too.

Let’s have a quick example. If your friend asks you if you’d like to attend a convention about sports but you’re not a sport person then going to that event is a waste of our time. Sure, you get to spend some time with your friend. Yet you have to use your time and energy to go to that event which you’re not actually going to benefit from going to. Instead of going to the event, ask your friend to meet up for a coffee or do something else. That way you still get time with your friend but you didn’t waste any of your own life.

Reading/watching/listening to something you don’t care about just because it’s popular

I’m sure we have all been guilty of this and I have too. We will see people absolutely loving a new tv show and all of social media won’t stop talking about it. It’s easy to feel like we need to invest our time into watching the show too. It might not even be a show that we have any interest in. Yet we get FOMO and watch the show anyway. Surely we can all see that this is a waste of time.

Not meal prepping

We all have busy live. There’s things to do and people to see. So why are we spending so much of our time making meals. If you enjoy cooking then this may not apply to you, but standing around in the kitchen and figuring out what to eat sucks. Instead, make a meal plan at the stat of the week as prepare and cook as much as you can straight away. This will save future you so much time.

Not keeping a visual to-do list

No matter how hard we try, we can’t remember everything. I don’t know about you but my memory absolutely sucks. No matter how important something is to remember, there’s a good chance that I’m going to forget it. This is why lists are so important to me. Particularly to-do lists.

By keeping a list of all the things that I need to get done, I don’t have to rely on my memory so much which will not only mean I’ll be more productive but my memory will be able to focus on other things, ultimately enabling me to remember more stuff like special memories.

Overloading your to-do list

I know that I just said to keep a to-list and I stand by that, but remember that not all to-dos are created equally. Giving yourself too many things you need to do is going to create an overwhelming feeling and you’ll probably end up not getting all that much done in the end.

Try to really prioritise your to-do list. This is a great time to ask yourself why you’re doing things too. Sometimes we are doing things that aren’t helping us and don’t align with our goals, so why are we wasting our time by doing them? Sure, there are things that we have no choice to do, but we should try not to make ourselves busy for the sake of being busy.

Having too much clutter in your home

Before I mentioned that it always helpful to keep everything in a set place in your home, but what about when you have too much stuff? Over our lives, we collect so much and in the end we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed with everything.

Everything you own requires something from you. Sometimes that things is maintenance, cleaning or even replacements. By going through your belongings and donating some things, you’ll have less stuff that will take up your time.

Not having clear goals and prioritise

One of the main things I discovered about myself when I began living more intentionally, was that I don’t know what I’m doing. I found myself dabbling in a bit of everything with no clear direction that I want my life to go in. By taking a step back to evaluate my goals and decide what actually matters to me, I found myself no longer doing things that were wasting my time. I no longer feel the pressure to do things just because other people are.

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So there are some things you’re doing that are wasting your time. Do you do anything of these things?