How I Waste Time Thinking That I'm Saving It

So often I waste time instead of utilising it. And today was another classic example.

I was putting information together for this week's writers' newsletter.

I had an article outline ready and then... instead of typing it up, I decided to use the "dictate" software on my Mac computer.

But I'm not a natural speaker and so my ideas didn't flow because I had to speak them instead of writing them so what I ended up with was a page of useless garbage.

So then I decided it would be far quicker to find a syndicated article online and publish that instead.

Next thing I know I'd wasted an hour searching and finding nothing.

Do you know how I could have spent that hour instead?

Yep. Writing my own inspirational article and then, if I really want to use my new "dictate" software (and I do because I'm like a kid with a  new toy) then I can read my article to the computer and get it to type if for me instead.

I began my task of having an article to publish at 12.30pm. And after my disastrous experiment in dictation and my fruitless search for a republishable article, it's now 2.15pm and I still don't have an article.

So in my efforts to shortcut the article writing process, I've actually wasted nearly 2 hours of precious time.

So if you're a writer, my advice is sit down and get your writing done. Even if it feels like slow-going (and writing soooooo often does) at least slow progress is progress.

All I have now is a big feeling of frustration and I still have an article to write.

So now I'm off down to sit under my Bali hut with a cool drink and write a block buster article.

Life is hard, is it not?

It's just a pity I've lost nearly two hours of my day that I can never get back. I could have been in the pool now instead of sitting beside it. Sigh...

That's the trouble with wasting time. Once time is gone, it's irrevocably gone.

I hope you can learn from my mistake.

Stay well.

And keep writing.