“Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.” Victor Hugo
Where has all my time gone for doing housework, making sourdough, keeping on top of the laundry, gardening, reading friends’ blogs and, most importantly, crafting?
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” Charles Darwin.
On StoryGraph I set a challenge of reading (with eyes or ears) 55 books in 2025, from January to May I was ahead of schedule, now I am 3 books behind target. Where has my time gone for reading and listening to books?
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” Carl Sandburg
People used to comment to me “I don’t know how you find the time to do so much?” As I look around my dusty house, laundry mountain, weed filled garden and neglected crafting projects, I am reflecting on where it’s gone. Where did all that time I had go?
The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” John Lennon
I know exactly where it has gone! Having cured myself of Instagram over a year ago, in the run up to Belladrum festival I started going on Facebook…a lot! Instead of just going on to YouTube to watch the people I subscribe to for an hour long episode whilst I did something, the shorts would catch my attention. Basically the Instagram reels, I had been addicted to, had been replaced with scrolling and watching shorts. When you are doing either your eyes are busy and your hands are being used to hold the device with one hand and swipe with the other.
“Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.” Mason Cooley
But as the quote above says spending time regretting this time I’ve wasted will be more time wasted…so onwards and upwards. I’ve unfollowed some YouTubers I had drifted away from watching, I have selected “see less shorts” on YouTube, I have logged out of Facebook again.
I will be careful not to procrastinate here about what I will do…as
“Procrastination is the thief of time.” Edward Young.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” Gandalf via J R R Tolkien
HighlandHeffalump 
Excellent. I find I am wasting way too much time on my phone.
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I gave up a game quite a few years ago that I use to play with friends on line, miss it sometimes but it was dominating my time and I decided I needed to quit and claw back my wasted time, so I closed it out and closed out Facebook and IG. Don’t miss the social media stuff, it was ugliness, I don’t miss it at all. Most of that time I put into my church callings and service, knitting and spinning, but I watch a few podcasts on YouTube (some knitting and spinning, a bison rancher, a dog groomer and a few various music reactors :P.) When I’m spinning or knitting, I listen to some music, sometimes movies on the TV (watching some Harry Potter again) for the last two weeks it was Shark week, lol. At night when I am falling asleep I listen to a few Apple Podcasts. Trying not to waste too much time, but even so I still find time to waste, lol. Would probably be less time to waste if I could have a garden to weed and take care of again, but, no area to garden. I use to garden when my children were growing up and they loved picking vegetables out of the garden to eat at will, especially the radishes and snow peas, lol the snow peas never made it into the house. I couldn’t use bug spay on it so I used soapy water to kill the bugs because kids are notorious about not washing things off before eating it and the rain always washed the soap off. They had fresh veggies in the summer for their meals, it was a great time, but oh my where did all the years go?!!!!
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Thanks for sharing. Its a shame you don’t have a spot for planting any more. Sounds lovely. There’s been a few games I got hooked on and quit. If I could do it in moderation, it wouldn’t be so bad. If I could limit things to 30 mins max but the other day I literally watched short videos for hours and hours and started first thing and last thing at night. Some days scrolling so much through videos or posts I would feel motion sickness. I am clearly an all or nothing girl. I did more by 12pm yesterday than I have done in weeks. Glad I snapped out of it.
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It’s wonderful that you figured out your time sinks and did something about them! Hope you feel you have some control back now. I know why I’m not crafting much (I’m putting a lot of time into personal coding projects) but I’m not sure I’ll do anything about it right now (since I like those coding projects too.) I’m glad for you that you could actually cut down on stuff! 😊
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These are excellent quotes. It is amazing how much time we all lose doing things that don’t actually spark joy instead of things that do like knitting or creative things. Instagram reels and scrolling are definitely my time sink – this post is such a good reminder to do the things we enjoy and not get distracted – thank you 🙂
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Thanks, I thought they were great quotes too.
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Excellent quotes, and excellent point. I too am trying to move away from social media. It isn’t easy in some ways, but it is a pretty big waste of time for the most part.
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