He said he'd decided to stop saying “yes” to things: “No more ‘yes'. In 2009, Sivers gave some interesting advice. What's your definition of a time sink? What sorts of time sinks do you have in your life? How do you cope with them? Any advice you can give Alex about coping with time sinks in his future?Īlso in the comments on Friday's article, GRS reader Jenzer reminded us of a blog post from Derek Sivers. That's my sort of rambling definition of a time sink. One of the reasons I've become more productive over the past few years is that I can recognize time sinks and avoid them. I'm fortunate right now that none of my relationships are time sinks, but I've had some in the past, and they weren't any fun. They can't seem to do anything on their own. As you all know, some people tend to be toxic. I believe that certain relationships can also be time sinks. When I'm answering e-mail, I'm not doing other things that would bring greater benefit, such as writing articles or studying Spanish. But holy cats! does it take a lot of time.
With these types of time sinks, you're generally rewarded for the time you invest. (Tyler K, care to chime in here?) And yes, you love them, but you recognize that you're no longer able to do other things that once seemed important. When you have kids, they take up all your time. I often think of children in this category. The first kind of time sink involves something you love, but which requires an inordinate amount of time.I think there are two primary types of time sinks:
So instead of saying “videogames are time sinks” or “children are timesinks”, it's important to address this question in general terms. What is a time sink for me may be a life purpose for you. The answer will vary from person to person, of course.
Time sink adware how to#
I was wondering if you, or any other GRS readers, had advice on how to tell whether something will be a “time sink” or not since that wasn't completely clear to me. One reader, Alex, is a college student, and he wants to know how to tell is something is a waste of time. One advantage of bringing back the short afternoon posts here at Get Rich Slowly is it'll give me a chance to carry on more of a dialogue with you, the readers.įor instance, there was a good conversation over Friday's post about how I've become a magician of time.