As I watered the upstairs plants this morning, and dutifully poured some over the Mother In Law's Tongue that sits on a chest of drawers in our bedroom and has been dead for probably the last 5 months, it struck me as a bit of a waste of time. I must spend about 1 minute a week watering it (which probably explains why it's dead), so if I were to live for another 50 years, that's almost 2 full days of time. That's loads! Enough for a nice mini break somewhere, or to do some painting, or spend time in the garden planting more plants I can later kill.

As someone who likes to make the most of my time on Earth, I got to thinking about all the other ways I waste time, in the hope of clawing some of those hours back to spend on more worthwhile endeavours.

Again, assuming I live another 50 years, here's how much time I can save by not doing pointless things:

Watering dead plants - 2600 minutes
Moving clean washing onto the bed to remind me to put it away, then putting it back on the floor when I go to bed - 5200 minutes
Setting 5am alarms with the aim of exercising before work, then changing them when I come to my senses - 6083 minutes
Writing reminders to do things I don't want to do instead of just doing them - 91,250 minutes
Checking things are still in my pocket when I know they are - 9125 minutes
Making the cushions look tidy then sitting down and messing them up - 12,166 minutes
Writing my name at the end of emails - 10,000 minutes
Making stupid pie charts - 78,000 minutes
Worrying that I'm wasting time - 200,000 minutes

Total = 396,424 minutes
= 6,907 hours
= 288 days

Wow. Almost a whole extra year of time to find new, more fun ways to waste.