According to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Breaking This Bad Habit Is the Key Element of Success

We all waste a lot of time. It’s hard not to -- we work too hard, we’re tired, and sometimes our minds wander and we get distracted.

But, according to powerful figures like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the secret to success is to channel our energy toward the most productive past times and hobbies and stopping activities “with low returns” – the more time we waste, the less time we have for what really matters.

As Warren Buffett famously said, "It's the

only thing you can't buy. I mean, I can buy anything I want, basically, but I

can't buy time."

A 2009

study from the University of Adelaide's School of Psychology

found that people are "far less willing to keep many options open"

when some have bigger rewards than others. And that’s an important

message.  Look at Bill Gates and Warren Buffett – they have learned to give up

some activities to focus on the ones that are more rewarding.

"I stopped listening to music and watching

TV in my 20s. It sounds extreme, but I did it because I thought they would just

distract me from thinking about software," the billionaire wrote in a blog

post. 

Buffett  does not like distractions either, in fact, he

doesn’t even have a computer in his office! By using a flip phone, he limits

internet distractions. We don’t’ quite want to go THERE though…

Ultimately it’s not about being all work and no

play, being productive can be fun, it just shouldn’t waste time or distract

from your goals. For example Buffett likes to play bridge. "It's got to

be the best intellectual exercise out there," he claims. "You're

seeing new situations every ten minutes. Bridge is about weighing gain-loss

ratios. You're doing calculations all the time."

In the end, it’s all about moderation and

knowing that the more time you spend on what doesn’t matter, the less time you

will have for what does. Plan accordingly.