Describe an activity that you usually do that wastes your time

You should say
What it is?
When you usually do it?
Why do you do it?
And explain why you think it wastes your time.

Model Answer 1

An activity that I usually find myself doing these days is overthinking. A lot of

negative news about the pandemic and uncertainties about the future has made me

fall into this habit of thinking a lot. Mostly, I catch myself overthinking when I am

trying to fall asleep at night and when the day is over.

I really don’t know why I think so much. However, I guess that the grim situation of

the world in the recent times compels me to think so much. The corona virus has

changed a lot and it is very disappointing. So, I guess before doing any activity I end

up thinking about how Covid will affect it.

I think that this pattern of thoughts is a time wasting activity because it is not fruitful

and it is not helping me in any way. The worrisome thoughts do not bring any

solutions and they only make problems look more complex. I also feel that

overthinking distracts me from my goal and sometimes robs me of my mental peace.

I have realized that this is a baseless activity and I will make conscious efforts to stop

doing it. I have decided to replace overthinking with reading, listening to music and

meditation. Whenever, I will catch myself doing this activity I will immediately divert

my mind to do something constructive and meaningful.

Model Answer 2

Introduction:
Well, life has become extremely fast and busy, and people often complain that they are short on time, yet we waste a lot of time intentionally or unintentionally. 

What it is?
Here I would like to talk about an activity that I do regularly, and it wastes my hours easily.

When you usually do it? and Why do you do it?
The fact is that I am quite active on social media, which is more like a weed these days. It is a more practical way to remain in touch with friends and relatives as it saves a lot of time and energy when compared to meeting others personally.

Explain why you think it wastes your time?
But sometimes, I feel I waste too much time on this. Firstly, I have a huge network of friends who are active on different apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and others, and for their sake, I always have to remain active on these platforms.

In addition, people sometimes share posts unduly and always expect from

others to comment, and a few of my friends are so obsessed that they get angry with me if I don’t comment in time.

Similarly, every second day is someone’s birthday, and I have to spare time to wish them. Moreover, these platforms are bombarded with extremely tempting advertisements, and once I get on these sites to check anything, I end up wasting a lot of time.

Conclusion: 
I feel very bad because now I am kind of addicted to using these platforms. I can utilize this time more productively than I waste here unduly.

So, this is an activity that I do regularly, which wastes a lot of time of mine.

Model Answer 3

Introduction:

• Time plays a significant/vital role in everyone’s life. It not only helps us make a good habit but organizing our daily activities also. 
• It is good if we understand the value of time because we can gain experience and develop skills over time. But sometimes we do some activities that waste our time. 

What it is?

• Here, I would like to talk about an activity that wastes my time. 
• Gossiping is not nice. If you’re doing it at work, you’re unproductive. If you’re doing it in the schoolyard, then it can lead to a vicious/dangerous cycle where people tear each other down or insult sometimes rather than build each other up. 

When you usually do it?

• I also do gossip/ unnecessary chats every day. In every evening time, my colony friends are gathered in the park, we play games, exercise, and spent about an hour on gossips. 
• Exercise and physical games make us healthier but doing gossip is a total wastage of time. 
• I mostly talk about new movies, fashion and TV serial’s stories with my friends that take a long time. 

Why do you do it?

• I do unnecessary chat because it releases my stress and makes me lighter, but only when I do it for a short time. On the other hand, when discussion takes a long time, it affects my schedule. 

Explain why you think it wastes your time?

• I know it affects my work/ study, but I can’t live without it because I am habitual of it. 

Conclusion:

• Nowadays, I am trying to leave this habit, and I am glad I got a little bit of success. 

Model Answer 4

Introduction:

• In all honesty, thinking about an activity that wastes my time was rather picking one activity from a long list of activities that I waste my time on.

What it is?

• So, out of all those activities, I think playing video games is the one that I regret the most.

When you usually do it?

• I play video games in the evening or on the weekends.
• I feel they are wasteful because they don’t achieve my intended purpose.

Why do you do it?

• I think I play them to relieve my stress, but actually, I end up feeling more stressed after playing them,
• The thrill of the win makes me play more, and thus I end wasting hours on it, which in the end stresses me.
• Losing, on the other hand, makes me feel incompetent, which again ultimately makes me feel stressed.

Explain why you think it wastes your time?

• However, more than anything, I think it is wasteful because it doesn’t benefit me in any way.
• Rather I lose out on a lot of important things in life because of playing these games.
• I feel like I would spend more time with my family if I didn’t play them.
• I could also be playing outdoor activities or going to the gym instead, which would be beneficial for me from a health perspective.
• Another hobby I had in my childhood was reading books, but because of this, I am not able to read books as well.
• And reading novels always improved my mood because I felt I gained something after reading them.
• It didn’t matter whether it was fiction or non-fiction.
• A lot of my friends also complain that in recent years I have stopped spending time with them.
• I always give the excuse that I am busy, but I know that I would be able to spend plenty of time with them if I didn’t play video games.

Conclusion:

• However, I also believe that there are people who are really able to enjoy games and feel better after playing them.
• Then, there are others who are actually able to make money by playing video games.
• For them, it might not be wasteful, but for me it certainly is.

Model Answer 5

Introduction

There is no denying this conviction that time is the most vital resource at our disposal. Once gone, it never comes back.

Although I try to make the best possible use of my time, there is one activity in which I waste a lot of time.

What it is?

I spend two to three hours on a popular social networking application called Instagram.

When do you usually do it?

I do it every day.

Why do you do it?

The primary reason for spending time on it is that I get instant gratification from it. Being a student, I have to spend about 7-8 hours in the study every day.

Due to this reason, sometimes I get stressed. So to relieve the stress and break the monotony, I have developed this habit.

And explain why you think it wastes your time?

With the heaps of experience I have in using Instagram, I have concluded that using this application is a sheer wastage of time and money.

When I had started using it, I used to believe that, I could find a plethora of information through it. However, with time I have realized that the information provided over here is not verified. Hence, any person sitting in any nook and corner of the world can put information on it, and there are no criteria to check the validity of the information provided.

Moreover, it contains a boatload of photographs and videos, which are highly addictive and do not provide any useful information.

Conclusion

The daily routine of engaging on Instagram is an imprudent approach, and I have decided to work with determination, dedication and discipline to change this habit of mine.

Model Answer 6

Introduction:

There is no denying this conviction that in this contemporary epoch, there is fierce competition, and due to that, time is scarce in most people’s lives. Yet, we have this uncanny knack for wasting our time on unnecessary things.

What it is?

I have this strange habit of watching television for prolonged hours.

When do you usually do it? and

I do it daily. In the morning I watch the news, in the afternoon I watch chat shows and in the evening I watch web series.

 Why do you do it?

I do it because I get instant gratification from it. These days the world is going through turbulent times due to the corona pandemic. In such a situation, everyone believes that staying at home is a prudent approach because the coronavirus is highly contagious and spreads rapidly.

Hence while sitting at home, I have developed this unproductive habit of wasting hours and hours watching television.

Explain why you think it wastes your time?

It is time wastage because most of the content shown is far from reality. Firstly the news channels are running for 24 hours, and providing news for such a long time is a daunting task. Since news for such a long time is not available, the channels have no options but to produce fake news.

The content shown by the channels in terms of news is highly exaggerated and often has no relation with the actual event.

Secondly, the programmes related to history are highly manipulated. The central focus of the channels is on grabbing more eyeballs to generate more viewership. Hence, they strive hard to produce such programmes which are highly addictive for the masses but provide distorted history.

Lastly, the entertainment programmes are repetitive. The ideas of most of the shows are more or less the same.

Conclusion

In nutshell, watching tv is not at all worthwhile. Thus, I am going to break this habit soon.

Model Answer 7

Introduction:

There is no escaping the fact that time is the most vital resource at our disposal. It is our bounden responsibility to make its judicious use.

Although I pay excessive heed to save time, there is one activity that usually wastes my time.

What it is?

The activity that wastes my precious time is gymming.

When do you usually do it?, and Why do you do it?

I do it every day to have a good physique.

Explain why you think it wastes your time?

I think planning is a waste of time because I have been doing it for two years without much benefit.

These days fitness is a big industry. Due to this reason, the big companies leave no stone unturned to rake in big bucks. And to do so, they overhype the benefits of gymming.

Every day we read articles that joining a gym helps us to have a fit and healthy life. After getting lured with one such advertisement, I had joined a gym and paid the two-year fee in advance.

The real issue is that the contribution of exercise in weight loss is just 20 per cent, and your diet plays the primary role.

For example, a chocolate pie contains around 1500 calories. When we eat such a heavy calorie delicacy, we need to physical work out for at least four hours in the gym to cover up.

Due to this reason, despite working hard, I haven’t lost much weight with gymming.

In my opinion, going to the gym is a sheer wastage of time as well as money.

Hence the possible course of action we must take for weight loss is to focus on our diet.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 : Follow up Questions

Here some examples of follow up questions that you may asked during your speaking part 3 by examiner related to cue card “describe an activity that you usually do that wastes your time”.

1. How do you balance work and life?
I think balancing work and life is always a work in progress. We are always doing it, and it is not something specific. For example, if we go on vacation with the family, we come back and spend extra time at work to make up for the pending work. Another rather unhealthy way, we achieve it is by cutting down on our sleep hours, but it takes a big toll on our mental and physical health.

2. Will you continue doing something when you are aware that it wastes your time?
I think the adage ‘bad habits die hard’ would be the best answer to this question. I think we do such things because we are addicted to them. I think it’s very hard to give up on such activities, and it requires a lot of willpower. However, the realisation that the activity is wasteful is the first step, and once people have that, it becomes easier to stop.

3. What kind of things make people pressured?
I think there are millions of things in today’s life that stress us- for example, financial obligations, unreasonable work deadlines, competition with others, and maintaining relationships. The pressure each puts varies according to the stage of life- for example, competition stress is in the early stages when we are trying to get into universities or trying to secure a good job and financial stress comes a little later when we have to manage the expenses for the whole family.

4. Why do some people refuse to abide by the rules?
I think there is a certain thrill in breaking the rules and doing whatever we want. In some ways, it is exhilarating and freeing to not care about the rules and regulations. Actually, I think it is good as long as we don’t harm others because it prevents life from becoming monotonous and boring.

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