Can time be wasted? | Alexander Leitner | TEDxVienna

Alexander Leitner is currently studying Communication Science and Business Administration at the University of Vienna. He also is a hobby-filmmaker having 10 years of experience with creating stop-motion animated short films. With his movies, he and his team have won several awards and he also co-organized and hosted film festivals. Additionally, he has held workshops for children and teenagers to teach them how to make stop-motion movies.

After spending that much time on an activity that is essentially just a hobby, the question arises: Is this wasted time? And what exactly qualifies as "wasting time" - every unproductive activity? But most of the time you will be productive, thus benefiting yourself in a certain way. The talk will focus on the concept of “wasting time” with time-consuming activities.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Two thousand, five hundred and forty six.

Those are hours, by the way.

Two thousand, five hundred
and forty six hours

that I spent on making videos
with plastic bricks.

Now picture this:

it's a beautiful Saturday,

the weather just couldn't be better,

and all your friends
want to hang out with you.

Instead, you spent the whole day
sitting inside, in a dark room,

and you're essentially playing
with little plastic toy bricks.

It starts out as just one Saturday,

but then you keep going,

and there goes another day,
another week, another month,

and before you know it,

you've spent most of your free time
with one particular thing.

After all, this year we have
a very special anniversary, right?

A ten-year anniversary.

I mean, ten years ago,
I started making brickfilms.

(Laughter)

[Brickfilms]

They're little animated movies

created by using the stop-motion technique

and plastic bricks, hence the name.

It works like this:

you have an object,
you take a photo of it;

you move it just a tiny bit,
take another photo;

move again, take photo, and so on.

And then you end up
with thousands of photos,

and when they're played at the fast rate,

the illusion of movement is created.

This is, of course,
a very time-consuming process.

Therefore, it's not a strange thing
to spend a whole sunny Saturday with this.

Together with my younger brother
Thomas and some friends,

we've been doing this for a while now,

but we aren't always
staying indoors in the darkroom.

We've also been attending film festivals,

even organized some,

and we got to win awards
with our little movies.

Now I'm also teaching children
how to make these films.

I'm organizing workshops for them,

some basically telling them,

"Instead of going out on a sunny day,
stay inside and play with plastic bricks."

(Laughter)

So most of my free time in these 10 years

has been dedicated
to make plastic bricks move.

And this is all time
that I'll never get back.

So I started to ask myself,

"Is all of this wasted time?"

I mean, all the hours
that I invested in this

could have been used
for so many other things, right?

[wasted time?]

Well, I believe that it's not
a bad thing if you waste time.

Therefore, it is OK if you waste time,

and you should probably waste more.

Some of you seem
very relieved with this info:

"Waste more time, no problem.

I can do that."

It might be a bit confusing

because, after all,
we're always being told

to maximize our potential
to live life to the fullest,

and oftentimes that seems
to include not wasting our time.

I mean, we like scrolling
through social media,

we like watching countless hours
of television shows,

but sometimes we might blame
ourselves for that afterwards.

We might feel guilty

if we just binge-watch several episodes
of our favorite show.

This comes from the fact

that we don't consider these activities
to be part of our greater goals in life,

like pursuing a career, forming a family.

They're really just ways to pass the time.

So when I started to ask myself
if I was wasting time,

first I looked it up in a dictionary.

It is defined as "to allow time to elapse
in an unproductive manner."

OK.

This can mean a few things.

The first being you're unproductive,

of course, when you're doing
absolutely nothing:

maybe lying in bed,

not watching anything, not even sleeping.

Just doing nothing.

Second way to view the term:

you're unproductive

when you're not achieving anything
or creating anything,

like you're just going through
that social media.

And the third way would be

that you're committing
to low-priority activities

instead of the things that you feel like
you should be doing.

You're basically procrastinating.

For example,

I wouldn't consider
cleaning my room a waste of time,

but it can be viewed that way

if I should be working

on an important paper
for university instead.

I mean, of course,
this is very subjective.

Maybe you do consider cleaning your room
more important than a stupid paper,

but for me, this paper is part
of my greater goal in life.

I finish the paper,

it helps me finish university,

I get a job, and so on.

So why would I want to waste time

with something that is not
part of that goal?

So there are many ways to waste time
and also some benefits to gain,

but still the question stands:

"Can time go to waste?"

[Can time go to waste?]

Objectively speaking, "No, it can't."

Time can't go anywhere, except forwards.

So, no matter what you decide
to do with your day,

time itself will just go on.

So, as time itself cannot be wasted,

why would you want to view
your time as wasted anyways?

I mean, many studies have shown

that you are more productive
and more creative

if you occasionally allow yourself
to focus on something different

or nothing at all.

A study by Dijksterhuis in 2004
focused on something similar.

He looked into the conscious
and unconscious thoughts

when making decisions.

In the form of experiments,

he presented participants
with a decision-making problem

and a few answers to choose from.

He divided the participants
in three groups:

the first ones had to give
their answers immediately;

the second group could consciously,
actively think about the problem,

and then they had to decide;

and the third group
was distracted for a bit

with a completely different task,

and then they had to answer.

The study concluded
that the unconscious thinkers,

meaning the ones
who were distracted for a bit,

made better and reasonable decisions.

There are, of course,
many ways to waste time,

and apparently some benefits to gain.

My preferred activity
would be making brickfilms.

Together with my brother
Thomas and friends,

we've concluded that's our time
with this is far from wasted.

I mean, even if we spend all these hours,

we still don't regret any sunny Saturday
that we spent with this.

And at this point, it has even become
a part of my identity,

a part of who I am.

People have even called me
Mr. Brick before.

(Laughter)

So, of course, even if you don't have
something to show off,

like a movie, a product
of your wasted time,

if you don't have that, it doesn't matter.

I mean, maybe you like
scrolling through social media,

maybe you like going for a walk
or meditate for an hour.

These activities all offer
positive side effects,

like you're learning
about your friends online,

you're maybe getting
mentally and physically fit.

And at the very least,

these activities will allow yourself
to rest and focus on something different.

In the beginning of my talk,

I brought up the idea
that it's a good thing to waste time.

Of course,

if you waste 15 hours every day,

it might not be more beneficial
than only one hour,

but there's no golden rule

when or how much time
you should waste to benefit.

Maybe think of setting yourself

a certain timeframe
to actively waste your time,

and then move on with your duties.

Because, after all, wasting time
remains a subjective term,

and therefore, it's up to you
how you want to view this term.

Don't let it be negative
or be guilty about it.

Instead, be happy about wasted time.

Look at all the joy and benefits

that these activities
can bring to your lives.

Because that

is never a waste of time.

Thank you.

(Applause)