Describe an Occasion When You Wasted Your Time Cue Card

When it was?

Since I had nothing to do; I used to spend my time surfing on Netflix. I asked my friends for recommendations of movies and TV shows, sometimes following the trends and Netflix’s suggestions which took four hours every day but since I was too busy escaping to a completely different world, unreal from the one I lived in, I had lost track of time. I used to complete a TV show consisting of hundreds of episodes in only about a week. It felt like a record at that time when I would compare it with my friends. Binge-watching the shows that I had already watched had turned into a daily habit of mine. When you escape from reality, things seem easy. And this feeling of easiness had turned me into a lazy person.

What you did?

It was one day when I had nothing to watch that I realized what I had been doing for the past few months. I analyzed the memories of every single moment from that time and realized that I spent two months without doing anything productive. There were tons of videos online on how people had utilized their time while there I was, wasting it entirely. I had spent too much time with my friends over calls and texts that were also exhausting me. I picked up my phone then and tried to find the cause of this need for escape.

And explain why you think it was a waste of time?

After days of trying to get back on track, I found a method called the Pomodoro method which had twenty-five minutes in it and it was up to me on how to use those minutes. I started focusing on my mental health because whenever there’s a need to escape from reality, there’s always something deep inside us that has been bothering us knowingly or unknowingly. This was the idea in my head and so, after barely a month, I got back on track with my productive side.

When it was?

I had been a bit sick at that time so I spent most of it resting on my bed with my phone in one hand. I spent hours on social media. Hours of scrolling through my Instagram wishing to have the life that someone else was living. I love watching beautiful things- a fan of beauty you can say, I spent most of the time wishing to have the perfect outfit or the perfect click through my camera.

What you did?

There are so many places that I want to explore that I found through Instagram and YouTube. I went on wondering how I would feel if I ever visited those places. I imagined how I would look if I had a certain dress or what kind of clicks of nature I would capture if I had a certain camera. The wandering of wanting the perfect life was so mesmerizing that I forgot that I was still in bed looking for all that.

And explain why you think it was a waste of time?

When I checked the activity time on my Instagram, I realized that I was spending a total of five hours per day scrolling through this fantasy world. And on YouTube, it was around three to four hours per day as well. I had been so busy living in a delusion that I had lost track of time. I decided to finally get my life back on track but spending a week like that had affected my mind so much that it took about a month to recover and leave my lazy and unproductive side behind.

When it was?

So, I like to believe in getting things done but most of the things that I do are in my head. I spend hours imagining a situation that might have never even happened and would not happen in any possible universe as long as I do things in my head. The word procrastination can have so much impact on you was something I realized through my lost hours. So, the thing is I had developed a bad habit of imagining an interview that I know for sure might never happen. I had my exams going on, it was about March.

What you did?

I had watched a motivational video on YouTube which was a waste of time since I was not applying any of it to my reality. But as soon as I finished watching that video, I felt like I knew every method to be a successful person and I had this ultimate self-realization in my head that I was going to be one, so, I started imagining an interview. In that, the interviewer was asking me questions about how I became the board topper and what I did differently from the rest. The answer was of my own because even though I knew that it was nothing but my imagination, I still considered that I would know something different from the rest. I was imagining all the possible outcomes of the interviews and all the possible questions while studying for ten minutes.

And explain why you think it was a waste of time?

I spent a month doing this because when I start imagining something, I can’t stop. And my exams were near. Now, the self-realization of how I wasted my time was already in my head because of the pressure, and apart from that, I was looking for ways to pass the exams. It’s quite funny and disappointing how it led me to that conclusion but I am also happy about the fact that it made me realize the worth of time and productivity.