You’re Wasting Your Life And You Don’t Even Know It

One of the weird things about finding yourself with more free time is that you suddenly have time to think.

A lot of time.

Since leaving Big Tech, I’ve had more opportunity to look back at how I’ve spent my life. And one thought keeps coming back to me:

Holy crap, I wasted a lot of time.

Not necessarily doing anything obviously stupid.

I worked hard. I built a career. I made money. I raised kids. I bought things. I consumed information. I maintained relationships. I did all the normal things you’re supposed to do.

But a surprising amount of it didn’t actually make my life better.

Some of it consumed my time.

Some consumed my mental energy.

Some cost me money.

And some managed to accomplish all three.

The average human life is roughly 4,000 weeks. I’ve already burned through around two-thirds of mine.