Can time be wasted?

I got my wisdom teeth removed Wednesday morning and have a whole lot of Percocet pumping through my system…so esoteric questions like this make me smile.

I’m not wasting time. Sitting in bed legally high for a few days sounds as good a plan as any.

:)

I have never regretted or felt like I wasted one second of my life…. until I watched Contact.

(ZING!!!!)

Most of the time, when I say I am ‘wasting time’, I am doing something like reading or watching TV or something like that. I do those things to relax myself and calm myself down after a long day/week/month, so I don’t think they really are ‘wasting time’. If you are doing something for yourself, how can that be a waste? The only time I think I actually do waste time is when I do something I really don’t want to, but I didn’t decline the offer. Like if I go see a movie I have no interest in, just because all my friends are going. That’s wasting time, because it isn’t important, I’m not doing it for me, and really, my friends wouldn’t care if I were there or not.

If I am doing what I want to do at the time, even if that means sleeping away the afternoon on my day off work, I don’t consider that time wasted (even though my ever active father will disagree with me!). The only time I feel that my time has been wasted is if I have to do something that I really object to doing with no reward. It’s very rare that I get that feeling thankfully!

Sure it can. We all know we have goals to reach for, important and pertinent tasks to complete and generally things that just must get done. Wasting time… It happens when what you’re doing isn’t getting you towards where you need to go in the present moment.

I think that a lot of times the term “wasting time” is not really meant seriously, but is more a playful commentary on what you are doing. I do not think anyone is wasting time if they’re doing what they truly want to do. I can’t judge an activity as being “lesser” than what I do simply because I wouldn’t do it. Yes, even if that means watching Big Brother, ending world hunger, or thinking about recipes in bed.

If they’re doing what they don’t want to do and they are not seizing a way out when there is one, they would probably feel that they had wasted time doing that. But I don’t believe it is something to dwell on; you have to move on from it.

The thing that comes closest to wasting time in my opinion is wallowing in regret, wishing things had turned out differently, letting the present slip by unnoticed or resented while rehashing the past or longing for the future.

Whatever I am, it’s here now.

Working sometimes feels like wasting time but then only really in a mellow dramatic sense as most of us need to work in order to be doing those things we class as wasting time.
One thing I find interesting is that I have just graduated and have therefore got no more lectures/seminars and other such nonsense so now when I conduct my time wasting activities they don’t feel as fulfilling as when I was doing them instead of going to lectures.

”Regrets? Could have beens? Wasting time? We are only who we are because of the path we traveled to get here. We will only become who we become by traveling the path to be traveled. Who says the path has to go there, but not here?”

I like this a lot, it’s something I’ve thought about often. Many times I’ll think back to how I could have done things differently. “If I hadn’t wasted time in that dead end relationship for two years I would have enjoyed those years much more.” But if I hadn’t stayed in the relationship I probably wouldn’t be in the one I’m in now, I probably wouldn’t be who I am now or where I’m at now at school.

I don’t think time can be wasted, but maybe it can be spent doing more positive things. My roommate argues that playing World of Warcraft all the time isn’t a waste of time cause it’s no different from reading a book, jerking off, or doing anything else in your free time. I however disagree, I think he could be making real life connections with people by going out and doing things in the real world or reading books expanding his knowledge. It’s not that he’s an unintelligent or bad person by any means, and I don’t bother him about playing the game that much, but I still think that his time could be better spent doing something else.

Whether or not his choosing to do something else will take him to a better place in life is obviously unpredictable, but eventually I think he may regret spending so much time on his computer instead of out exploring other activities. Then again everyone is different, and whatever makes someone happy makes them happy.

Yes. Go hang out on Askville for a while and see.

Time is the enemy of Eternity. One is man made, the other made man. Which will have us? Which deserves our concerns?

As Asher Roth once said: “time isn’t wasted when you’re getting wasted”.

There is not much I would consider a waste of time. Perhaps being pre-occupied with matters completely out of one’s control would be an example. Dwelling on hating someone or something could have the double edge of not just being a waste of time but can negatively affect your mind and health. Doing an activity when there are seemingly “better” alternatives are not a waste of time if they are right for you at the time. Should I have sought meaningful employment immediately upon my graduation from UCLA rather than partying and traveling and enjoying myself? My parents would say yes, but I wouldn’t trade a minute of that time for another paycheck. Who I am today is a product of all the activities I did and all the interactions I’ve had with others and when I reflect upon my life, I may briefly consider how things may have been different, I don’t dwell on that stuff and I find myself satisfied that I’ve led a good life, have not intentionally harmed anyone and if anything, been a positive influence or directly been of assistance to others. See ya….Gary/wtf

It can’t be reclaimed. When you get older you will regret things less if you have used your time to do more stuff that you enjoy and/or find meaningful.

For me, the older I get the more I worry about “wasting time.” I realize that my time here is limited and that more time is behind me than in front of me. Add that to a work ethic instilled by my parents who went through the depression and you have someone who is ridden by guilt for not utilizing every second to its max. I feel guilty because I spend too much time here instead of carving or painting or doing something that produces a tangible result! I feel guilty if I take a nap instead of working in the garden.
The only time I have peace in my head is when I am at my real job and even that is frustrating because progress does not depend only on my actions .

At this point in my life I rationalize the lack of productivity and motivation by saying it is where I am physically and emotionally that is causing my inertia and time wasting ways. Hopefully in a couple of months when this phase of my life is over and I once again have clear cut goals I will feel more like producing and therefore less guilty about wasting time.

You’ve just squandered a bit here haven’t you?

@Blondesjon – Yep, my entire answer reflected that thought, but if we go by @pdworkin ‘s reply, and I think that is true, then Fluther is a good spend, at this point in time/my life anyhow!

@rooeytoo . . . that was meant for @daloon

No, but wasting time can be wasteful if you think it is.

@Blondesjon Actually, right now, I find my time spent at fluther to be the most meaningful thing I can do outside of spending time with my family. Call me crazy! And I’m sure you do!

People set their own goals and when they believe they are not meeting those goals, they call it wasting their time.

I used to have regrets about a lot of things. A big one was how much time I “wasted” with a loser ex boyfriend of mine who verbally and sometimes physically abused me. But no more. I don’t consider it time wasted. I consider it a learning experience in which I grew from. Because of that I appreciate my fiancé much more than I normally would have. So instead of dwelling on my past mistakes I’m thankful for them. They made me who I am today.

^ ^

Thanks, @daloon, for a great question. I needed to read this today. :)

@daloon . . .i’ve missed ya big guy.

@Blondesjon Have you been off your feed lately? Seems like you haven’t been sending your barbs my way lately. (Speaking of wasting time, lol.)

I miss you, too, man!

Cool. We’re in agreement for once.

now fuck off

depends on what your goal is, I suppose..
But no, in general, I would say no.

@Blondesjon….You are not suggesting that fucking off is necessarily a waste of time, are you? Never mind….I’ll go fuck off. See ya….Gary/wtf

The planet could blink away in an instant and the universe would not do so much as shrug in acknowledgment. All these things, stuffs, titles, value and meaning are irrelevant to the cosmic cycle. On the scale of the universe, we are nothing; not substantial.

We are wasting our time; all of us hurtling towards non-sentience – back to star stuff – yet all secretly believing we won’t. On the cosmic scale, we are all equal. The universe provides no ceremony for the valiant or genius.

Theatrics aside, the only wasted time any of us can indulge in is inaction. As long as you choose to live and help others do so, you have not wasted life.

spend time answering questions…. check

cordial greetings to @Blondesjon…. check

fucking off…...???

fucking off…...
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I plan on wasting time today.

Anyone who asks that question has never tried to tell a teenager anything.

this is trite, but there’s a lyric in a Rise Against song that says “the time that we kill keeps us alive.” i suppose not always…but i like to think of it that way when i’m doing something most people would say is a ‘waste of time’. it’s all about perspective.

make your own decisions and call it destiny, right? lol

a waste of time for you isn’t necessarily a waste for someone else.

is writing a response to this a waste of time?

You can only waste time if you are doing something unproductive that you don’t enjoy doing and doesn’t benefit anyone else. (sleeping doesn’t count!)

Naw, I don’t think time can be wasted. I think that what we do is what we choose to do, whether or not we approve of our choices.

NOW is the only moment there is.
Any-time the mind does not fully embrace the present is “wasted”.

@SABOTEUR I really like your answer!!! :)

@rentluva5256 How very kind of you. Thank you!

No problem @SABOTEUR.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. When you hit the big five oh (50) and become a ”have a buck Chuck” you really do see time differently. I don’t believe time can be wasted, it is not like you have so much and then you lose some down the drain or drop it on the sidewalk where you can retrieve it. I think time is most often mismanaged.

I once read that it was ancient man who invented time, the Romans that perfected tracking time, the Swiss made it easier to view the passage of time and Americans who found the way to waste the most time.

If time is mismanaged depends on what a person wanted to get done with the time they had. I can see many instances where my time was not put to the best use. Sometimes it was apathy on my part, ignorance, and sometime circumstances I had no control over that caused my effort not materialize with the outcome I had hoped for.

A person that wants to spend all their time golfing or fishing I cannot truly say is wasting or mismanaging time because they are not after the same goals I am. If their goal was to maximize daylight hours fishing and get at least one fish if they manage to do that for them that time was well spent. To me it would have been time mismanaged because my goal would have been to do something far different in those hours