The fact that I am writing about Tip #2 on this topic a month after I wrote Tip #1 shows that there is something I know about wasting time that you might not know… I’ve been putting it off day after day and finally there is sufficient pressure to nail down the very reason why it took so long. 

A very important ingredient if you want to waste your time successfully is procrastination. Procrastination will give you the quantum leap you’re looking for, it will give you the wings to fly, if you will. It’s a great way to waste your time as it gives you the opportunity to waste your time both directly and indirectly. Often you’ll be able to waste your money as well. Bottom line – when you procrastinate you can kill two three (or more) birds with one stone!

I think I have achieved the highest, Master’s Level of Procrastination… I can literally wait months until I enter people’s business card information or send them a short message, or call. If you do this you’ll need more time to accomplish the task because you’ll have to remind them who you are. And, by the way, only I can procrastinate for 18 hours while pondering a workout session. I can wake up at 6 am and plan to work out right away, get dressed and then do something else. Right up until getting started at 12 am, which is 18 hours later. YEAH!

A good example of procrastination in my life is from my times when I moved from Berlin to New York. I had a couple of bank accounts in Berlin that I needed to close. I had money in them. I only needed one account till the end of 2012, but I had four. When I lived in Berlin these accounts served their purpose, but when I left I needed just one to finish some transactions. What did I do? I let all four of them running! I logged in very recently and saw they’re all in red. See, I’ve taken out all of the money, but the fees kept rolling. As a result this is a great time (and money) waster – I have to call, e-mail, and fax information to cancel these accounts AND I have to pay for it. What is also very important – I could have been doing something else with this time I am now using to call and e-mail so I automatically procrastinate other things that I have to do.

Another great way to procrastinate is to create e-mail accounts, other online accounts and Paypal accounts and not write down the password. This can result in a great waste of time. I had about three or four Paypal accounts and I have forgotten passwords to all of them. I have also forgotten where I have written them down IF I have indeed written them down at all. I don’t use Paypal often so every time I have to use it I have to create a new account. I’ve also successfully managed not to recover two of my e-mail addresses for the exact same reason and also because I never give the right answer to recovery questions out of security concerns.

An interesting way to procrastinate is to let go of inspiration when you have to do some creative work. Just chill out and enjoy the feeling that you feel creative! You can work on it another time when inspiration is not there. So you will be wasting time because creative work takes longer without inspiration.

In short – here are a few of my tips on how to procrastinate:

• don’t answer e-mails and phone calls right away – let the workload build up and hope that you will have to clarify additional details when you finally call/ e-mail
• don’t cancel any memberships and accounts on time
• don’t write down passwords and enter false answers you can’t remember to recovery questions
• don’t work on your creative stuff when you have inspiration