I was walking to school the other day when I realized, I had never actually counted the amount of time it took me to walk there.

So on that day, I counted, second per second.

And based on my calculations, it took me an average of 10 minutes to walk to school with a moderate pace.

But it made me wonder, if I could walk to school in 10 minutes, then what about the 10 minutes I spend slacking off watching TV, or the 5 minutes I add on to my sleep every morning.

Using estimated reports of procastinating, it would add up to 2,900 km in a year. That’s enough to walk from Jakarta to Bangkok, and back.

This article will explore how much of our lives quietly slip away to procrastination, and more importantly, how to reclaim that time and put it to better use.

Why We Procrastinate

I’m not a stranger to procrastinating.

In fact, I consider myself to be a healing addict.

For a while, I had “off days”, and “healing days” as a normal part of my life.

These were the type of days where, my plans would be disrupted, or when I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Those types of days.

But it’s only been recently when I found the actual poison that these days have.

Sometimes we’ll have days that are massive turn-offs.

For example, your coffee being too hot, your PC not turning on, people acting like they’re trying to annoy you, and 4 airplanes passing your house while you’re trying to record a video (based on a true story).

But does that have to ruin your entire day? Does it mean you can have an off day or a nothing day?

Here, I’ll put it into perspective.

Imagine you just bought a carton of 18 eggs from the store.

Out of the 18, one has gone bad. But even so, would you throw out the entire carton?

Throughout our lives we lose so much time to one negative in a day full of positives. It may suck, and you may feel unmotivated, but that doesn’t mean you need to stop.

Breaking Free

Tough situations and annoying moments are inevitable in a day, they’re always bound to happen.

It’s almost like the universe is trying to give you a code to stop being productive sometimes.

But do you want to keep being the universe’s little bitch? Do you want to keep obeying everything it says?

I’d hope not.

We need to start taking control of our life now more than ever.

Flip your middle finger out to the universe, take it by the reigns, and make it do what you want.

“It’s hard though, I feel no motivation.”

This article has been written in a period of time where I have no motivation, but the fact is, I finished it, and you’re reading it right now.

There’s an underrated word that overshadows motivation tenfold; action.

Don’t have days off, even in bad situations.

Say you wanted to record a video outside in the sun, but it’d rained hard during the morning.

What do you do? You re-navigate that momentum into a different task of the same importance to you.

You do need time off to cool down though. Replace, don’t erase.

Instead of 10 minutes of scrolling, try 10 minutes of reading, or 10 minutes of guitar.

Find something that can replace your bad habits with beneficial habits.

“Breaking Free” From Highschool Musical

Tips For Regaining Lost Time

Here are a few tips to start fully living life again:

1. Track Your Procrastination

It takes time to actually start doing consistently, because when you procrastinate you zone out.

But track the amount of time you lose.

3 minutes off to snack on chips? write it down.

Keep it somewhere accesible and easy to find. On your phone, or in a small notebook.

Trust me, the amount of time you lose to procrastination in a day will shock you.

When I tracked it down the first time, I had spent more than an hour playing games, snacking, and even consuming videos.

2. Make A Ranking Of Tasks

I have a lot on my plate, school, my start up, my organization, etc.

So for each, I separate tasks according how easy it is to do.

For my start up, my hardest task is creating a full length video, and the easiest is posting a meme on Instagram.

Even on days where I am unable to contribute with full length videos, I can still put in my work by posting a daily meme.

This keeps me from having any ‘0 days’, and keeps me in the working mood.

3. Throw Out The Bad Egg

Based on the egg analogy from before, what do you interpret it as?

Instead of throwing away the entire day because of one bad egg, throw out the bad egg and continue the day.

If you’re surrounded by people who keep reminding you about it, distance yourselves from them, just for a day.

Imagine, in a day of 24 hours, you waste it all because of something that happened in just 5 minutes.

The day is never over before you make it over.

4. Start With 2 Minutes

There are times where we have no motivation, at all.

It hurts to move our body, it hurts to even think, but that’s okay.

As humans we don’t have to work all the time like robots, sometimes it’s fine to have days to relax.

But a day to relax doesn’t mean a day without work.

Start with 2 minutes, any task.

Soon, that 2 minutes will compound to 20, and suddenly you’ve finished your task.

But even if you’re still stuck by the end of the 2 minutes, hey, at least you did something.

5. Minimize Distractions

It’s easy for us to get distracted, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

For us humans, it takes 23 minutes to regain focus once lost.

That’s a lot of time, all because of one notification.

When you’re trying to focus with no motivation, get rid of all the more appealing distractions.

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” – Muhammad Ali