What would you really do with it?

Nobody seems to have any time these days.

But people have always been busy. There have always been families, jobs and social lives to consider. We have more ever-improving technology than ever to make our lives easier so we can ‘save time’ to enjoy our lives more. But how many times have you heard somebody say?

‘I’d love to but I can’t because I’m so busy/slammed/manic at the moment’?

There’s almost some kind of social pressure to be seen to be not just busy, but really busy, because if we’re not, then we have somehow failed in modern society’s eyes.

Being busy has become a calling card for the disorganized. And the fearful.

Don’t get me wrong. Many people have more than one job, family, and other commitments to manage and I highly respect the fact that these are challenging things to deal with.

However, I’m talking more about people in work especially. Those who want to be seen to be busy when the truth is they are just disorganized.

If we’re the managers of our own time, then we do have the time but often choose other priorities. Clearly, if you work for a company, your boss often manages your work time, but what about your personal time?

Just for a moment, let’s consider the following:

If you had the time that you want, how much time would that be and perhaps more importantly, what would you actually do with it?

Would you need one hour a day? One day a week? One week a year?

And if you had this time, what would you do with it? Write a book? Sit down and read? Go for a coffee? Go to the gym? Do more gardening? Travel? Build a house? Spend more time with family? Or spend it alone in deep contemplation?

It can be incredibly difficult to manage our time effectively. I‘ve noticed people give various reasons, dare I say, excuses, as to why they can’t do something they want and time is one of the most common of those.

Focusing on why we can’t do something will not help us to achieve what we want unless we look at it from a more positive perspective. Clearly, everybody leads different lives, and the demands of family, work and many other things can have an impact on the time that we actually have or the time that we think we have available to us. But…

What if we gave ourselves permission to have the time we want in order to do what we want to do?

For example, I don’t seem to find the time to write as frequently as I would like and in truth, this is because I have prioritized other things. My lack of progress in this area is my responsibility.

With this in mind, I have now looked at my calendar, reprioritized, and set up 1 hour a day to focus on writing, posting, and commenting more often and I hope to increase this in the future, but one step at a time.

I’ve found that having smaller, more achievable, and more realistic goals is far more effective than having hugely ambitious and equally unrealistic ones that you will never achieve and then feel bad about when you don’t achieve them, killing any motivation you may have initially had.

Admittedly for some people, writing may not be one of the most important things to do, but it is for me at the moment. I enjoy it, would like to improve, and am prepared to make more time for it.

So, what’s stopping you giving yourself permission to have some time?

And if you had that time, what would you really do with it?

Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash