Time Leaks
A time leak is something that takes away from time that you could otherwise be using effectively.
Examples of this are:
- Busy work
- Meetings with no goal, value, or agenda
- Mindlessly scrolling through social media
If you used to work in the office but now work from home, your commute time can be used for something. This is time that many people spend engaged in driving, but this time can now be spent reading, relaxing, working on a side project, or sleeping.
These can be identified in a few ways:
- Manually tracking for a few days by writing notes
- Using an app such as RescueTime on all of your devices
Once you see what you are spending your time on, you can then figure out what is not valuable to you so you can make adjustments accordingly.
It’s worth noting that what is a time leak for one person may not be for another. Spending time on social media may be well-earned relaxation, or even part of your job. For others, watching videos for an hour on YouTube may be time spent in the “dark playground”.