It has been a while since I published a list of something. Besides, my previous lists were various favorites (like My favorite household cleaning hacks) On the contrary, in this short post I would like to share a list of my anti-favorites: top 10 time wasters that steal your time and energy, deflecting you from what’s important (and no, it’s not a Facebook feed, yet that one can be counted in as well).

So, here we go:

1. Lack of defined priorities and goals — remember Seneca: if you don’t know to which port you are sailing, no wind will be favorable;
2. Waiting for inspiration or the right moment or the right conditions — there will always be something, as it is easier to find an excuse why not than to find a way how to;
3. Perfectionism — likewise, there will always be a way to improve, but don’t wait until everything is perfect or you will be waiting for way too long without any progress. “Progress, not perfection!” (Thanks, Galina, for the quote!)  – that is the key to achievement!
4. Complaining – what does that bring you aside from draining your internal energy?
5. Fear of failure – you cannot get rid of fear, nor it is an intention. What you can do, however, is to accept your fear and just move on, knowing about it, yet not taking it into consideration for the sake of decision-making;
6. Worrying about what other people will say — it is a big time and energy waster, and it is so irrelevant at the end of the day!
7. linked to the above — Don’t waste your time trying to please everybody around or trying to be friends with everybody. Be real, be you. You are not a chocolate cupcake to be loved by everybody! And even for chocolate cupcakes – not everybody loves them…;
8. Doing everything yourself — don’t play a super-hero, just ask for help and you will be surprised how many options of help are actually out there;
9. Comparing yourself to others or to the wrong benchmarks — benchmarks as such are not bad, but you need to know why you use them and what do you want to achieve;
10. Failing to learn from your mistakes — every stumbling block has the potential to become a stepping stone, as long as you draw your lessons from it. Otherwise, you are wasting your time on revising the lesson you should have already mastered.

Et voila! Once you avoid the above you will preserve quite some energy… And yes, time is flexible; thus, if you are effectively managing your energy, trust me: you WILL have enough time for all the truly important endeavors. The rest is just a matter of prioritizing, structuring and persisting.