A puppy who destroys your house on a daily basis such that the responsibilities of pet ownership are more than you expected. | An employer who interviews you seven times and then decides they have no budget to hire anyone. |
Being stuck in a traffic jam. | Coworkers who become dependent on you such that they seldom solve a problem on their own. |
Demanding clients / customers / stakeholders who require a great deal of support. | Escalating commitment whereby you start something that consumes unexpected resources and fear to quit due to the resources you've invested. |
Idle conversation such as workplace gossip. | Jury duty and other major disruptions to your time that are sudden, unexpected and mandatory. |
Lines in a fast food restaurant. | Meetings that extend beyond their schedule, go off on tangents and fail to add much value. |
Problem solving such as a problem with a mobile app that you think will take 2 minutes to solve that ends up consuming several hours. | Red tape such as strangely complex tax forms. |
Service failures such as a streaming media service that keeps crashing / becoming slow. | Shopping online whereby you spend far longer than expected comparing products. |
Social media "rabbit holes" where you begin with a purpose in mind but end up following links suggested by AI that seeks to increase user engagement. | Time spent worrying about something. |
Video game tasks / activities / missions / goals that take far longer than players initially expect. | Waiting for a delayed flight. |
Waiting for a friend who is late. |
| Overview: Time Sink | ||
Type | ||
Definition | A surprisingly long period of time that is unproductive and wasted. | |
Also Known As | Time BurglarTime Suck | |
Related Concepts | ||
