THERE’S something about being free from daily work hours that tend to make you... waste time.

And getting a handle on it can take time. It’s easier to discipline yourself when you know there are written rules to follow.

That’s my realization after being freed of the corporate world and going freelance.

It’s worse because I jumped out just one week before December. That means, I not only got my own free time, people too were unavailable and thus there was more time than I knew how to handle. In the end, I wasted it.

Sorry. First-timer here. But I’m learning.

I know I can’t get back those wasted time, but I can promise not to waste some more.

Time, after all, is one resource that we can never recover. But many have no qualms wasting it, especially these days with everything in our mobile to grab our attention. Just by replying to messages and comments, we could easily waste an hour or two. Add browsing, reading, and watching videos, another hour or two. Get into an argument, and you waste the whole day.

How many hours have been wasted the past year just because of our phones? How many one last game, did we promise ourselves but broke?

We can only wonder as I cringe in guilt for the time I wasted.

I’m trying to get a good hold of my time, but to be honest, my phone makes it difficult. Let us start the year being concious of how our phones can control us. Do not let it.

saestremera@gmail.com