When I was young, my mother often reproached me for playing various trivia games and quizzes, for allegedly wasting time instead of, for example, “learning something really useful.” Well, years have passed – and the house in which I’m actually writing this post today was bought with the proceeds of a pub quiz project that I created.
In fact, you never know which of our hobbies and interests will turn out to be a waste of time, and which, under the right circumstances, will bring good results. So our selection of stories today is dedicated to various activities that people used to spend hours and hours doing – only to realize later it actually was totally pointless.
More info: Reddit
#1
Thinking about conversations hours after they happened and trying to think of what I could have said differently.
Image source: General_Nup, Juan Pablo Serrano
#2
Reading 200 amazon reviews for a sponge. ended up not buying it.
Image source: Reasonable-News-3218, cottonbro studio
#3
Arguing with anti-vax 🥜.
Image source: Sqr-Peg-Rnd-Hole_569, Antoni Shkraba Studio
#4
Arguing with strangers on the internet.
Image source: Simon_Klios, Peter Olexa
#5
When my manager got fired I picked up his responsibilities thinking it would help me move up. All of our departments numbers got better. My co-workers were much happier because I let them have more flexible schedules and I approved pretty much every time off request. I spoke with my GM and he claimed to be on board with me moving up but said that he couldn’t open the position up right away. About six months later they opened the position up for applications so I put my resume in, then they hired someone else that never worked in the industry so he didn’t know how to do anything and he was acting extremely rude to customers when they requested certain services that our company specifically specialized in. About one month later he decided the job wasn’t for him so he stepped down and they transferred him to a different location to avoid drama. My GM immediatly tried to have me fill in again without promoting me but I told him to f**k off. Now I work for one of their competitors and I make roughly 50% more an hour above my former co-workers with a much better benefit package and I don’t have to do any management work.
Image source: throwaway_12358134, Jonathan Borba
#6
Watching productivity videos for three hours instead of doing the thing.
Image source: OkParamedic147, energepic.com
#7
I spent weeks learning how to code and I made my own website for teachers to play a game in class. Got it fully functional. Later I was describing it to a friend and he said, oh kind of like ____.com which is when I realized someone had already made my idea happen.
Image source: Illustrious_Job1458, Kevin Ku
#8
Spent hundreds of hours making a large and complicated cross stitch sampler for a close family members wedding. Spent a fortune framing it. They got divorced. I can’t even stand to think about what happened to it. Lesson learned.
Image source: Poodlepink22, getyouryayasoutahere
#9
Telling myself negative things about myself. That insane body I had 20 years ago? I thought it was trash at the time (“I could stand to lose a little pinch here”). Earning degrees? I took it for granted. Awards? Compliments? I rejected them. Now I just say “thank you” and try to be nice to myself inside my brain. It’s been life changing.
Image source: Missfit17, Johannes Plenio
#10
Manually editing ID3 tags on my entire MP3 collection back in the mid-2000s.
Image source: revision23, Skyler Ewing
#11
I spent a few hours drawing the complete blueprint of a choose your own adventure book by going back and forth and finding all possible 400 steps and how they’re intertwined.
I felt a huge sense of accomplishment and learned a lot about how they’re structured, but in the end it was completely useless and a waste of my time.
Image source: ChronicTheOne, Daniel McCullough
#12
A lot of prep work I did as a teacher. Didn’t really matter in the long run.
Image source: Entire-Department258, ThisisEngineering
#13
I used to work at a pizza and sub shop. We used sliced white American cheese for the subs and it came in 3lb blocks. Each slice was off set from the other so that you could easily peel it off for serving. The owner made us slice the block down the middle into halves, then peel and re-stack the cheese from being in a rectangle shape to being an “x” shape. It was completely useless as the cheese was already easily separated with the off set manner of packaging. It was 25 years ago and I think about it weekly.
Image source: Beaverbrown55, RDNE Stock project
#14
Gaming. I used to treat it like it was a full time job. Trying to get achievements and s**t. Then I realized I had all maxed out skills in games but not in real life so I replaced it with coding. I still game but nowhere near as much.
Twitter. I used to doom scroll Twitter a lot. Then I was tired of the unsolicited p**n and toxic environment, so I stopped. Yes, Reddit can be the same way, but at least with Reddit, you get to pick the cesspool you want to swim in.
Image source: SolidAgentPayne47, EVG Kowalievska
#15
Spent two years trying to get the wrong person to love me and stop accusing me of cheating on her all the time. Turns out she was projecting her actions onto me and to this day doesn’t believe she was being emotionally a*****e.
Image source: photoguy423, Mikhail Nilov
#16
Going to church as a child.
Image source: NLtbal, cottonbro studio
#17
Spent countless hours every spring and summer weekend for years fighting back honeysuckle, kudzu and bamboo, fertilizing and weeding my lawn. Finally came to the realization that none of it mattered, it was always going to grow back from all three neighbors yards. Now AI just run it over with the mower and ignore whatever is left..
Image source: bluecheetos, FOX ^.ᆽ.^= ∫
#18
Arguing with my parents. Literally about anything. Answer: No.
Image source: Practical-Thought420, RDNE Stock project
#19
Hand-pulling invasive mint from the yard. I didn’t want to k**l my native plants, but after many weekends spent hunched over in the garden pulling new sprouts I ended up smothering the whole thing with the heavy-duty plastic weed barrier.
Image source: TicketNo23, Kaboompics.com
#20
Spent an entire afternoon color coding my to do list then forgot to do any of it.
Image source: Ill-Particular6460, energepic.com
#21
Not blocking family and “friends” who overstepped boundaries.
Now, I don’t even block. I stick them in archive. One of my aunts has sent me 1,435 messages, which are all unread.
Yeah life is boring without all the pointless drama, but I’m no longer stressed out or annoyed either. They’ve started actively ignoring me now when they see me, I think they’re under the impression it will upset me but once I realised what they were doing it lifted a weight off my shoulders. I’m no longer worried about bumping into them in public, they won’t say anything to me other than stare at me from a distance.
Image source: HungryTeap0t, Craig Adderley
#22
Arguing against people who aren’t open minded.
Image source: rudygj, RDNE Stock project
#23
Scrolling Reddit.
Image source: ErnieHi
#24
I bought an existing business the first of June and moved it to a new location. I spent 3 months counting and organizing inventory, 10+ hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Found out last week, the spreadsheets I had from the previous owner and the software I used in my own count were not 100% compatible with the new POS system. I have spent the last week and will be spending many more, recounting and entering EVERYTHING again.
This was not anything I could have predicted and it’s a coding issue. So, not much can be done except to give myself a few minutes to cry and go through it all.
Image source: one_yam_mam
#25
The TV show Manifest.
Image source: Extra-Fisherman-995, Netflix
#26
Remaking my town in Minecraft, used Google maps measuring with a virtual protractor. It was going good and actually accurate. I’d make 2 points then to get a straight line id dangle a weight on a rubber band over my screen, keep it lined up and place blocks accordingly.
I mapped out several roads, where I live and houses around me, our entire lake was mapped and filled in… Just got burnt out. Probably spent a couple hundred hours, just relaxing watching YouTube as I mapped.
Image source: Traditional-Bike7825, Alexander Kovalev
#27
Spent an hour making a workout plan, then celebrated by not working out.
Image source: Ok_Article_3863, Ron Lach
#28
Spent 3 hours cleaning my email inbox, only to get 20 new emails the next hour 😭.
Image source: Pastelhearty, Solen Feyissa
#29
Moved into a new house and the back lawn was pretty nice but noticed the lawn and weeds growing up the fence on all three sides so I assumed they had mowed the lawn and didn’t edge it. I watered that lawn for 2 weeks before I noticed it was fake.
Image source: Free_Ganache_6281, Engin Akyurt
#30
Scrolling through Netflix for an hour only to rewatch The Office for the 12th time.
Image source: TheLegitimateGoose
#31
Deleting stuff on my phone to make room for the next upgrade. !!!! Gah! There’s still no room!
Image source: AnnDazz, AS Photography
#32
Applying for tech jobs in 2025, even with more than a decade of experience.
Weeeeeeee.
Image source: Mythasaurus
#33
Sorting my kid’s Legos by color.
He has thousands of pieces. My thinking was if they were better organized (vs being mixed in one big bin) he’d be more willing to play with them because pieces would be easier to find. He rarely plays with them and when he does, all 12 or so bins are strewn around and pieces are haphazardly thrown back into any bin when done.
Image source: jdiers17, Vitaly Gariev
#34
My bachelor’s degree.
Image source: Wise_Reindeer_2366, Joshua Mcknight
#35
Back in 2009 or 2010, there was this website that just launched, called Lockerz.
For everyone that you referred to the website that signed up (it was free) you got points. Get enough points, and you can redeem them for free stuff like video games during their first release.
So I signed up like 150 people. Mostly random internet people who were trying to do the same thing I was doing, and some people who I personally knew.
When the first release window came, the website crashed from heavy traffic, so I was unable to redeem my points. 2nd and 3rd release window as well.
It was then that I realized that it was all just one big scam to get people to sign up for their website. I wasted hours getting people signed up for that stupid site. .
Image source: alwaysmyfault
#36
Destiny 2.
Image source: ChthulusBane
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