If I Just Had More Time, I Could....
How often have you said (or heard someone else say) "If only I had more time, I would be able to ______!"
Alternately, it might have been something like "WHEN I have more time, I'm going to _______!"
You'll Never Have "More Time" than You Have, Right NOW!
Time flows like a river...
Let's face it, we all lead busy lives, and they tend to be filled with activities, events and people who... well... take time. The fact that we arrive at a place in life where we wish we had more time is merely a reflection of having a full schedule.
Occasionally, I say the same thing-- myself-- and then I have to remind myself that I actually never had "more time," I simply was doing different things with my time... but my schedule was still pretty full.
If you think about it, I bet yours was, too.
Time is really an interesting construct. We try to convince ourselves that we can get more things done if we had "more" time... but the underlying truth is that it's not the quantity of time that's an issue, it's how we prioritize what we give our finite amount of time to.
A Look at "Having" More Time vs "Making" More Time
Blooming calendula
Unless aliens come along and magically use their transmogrifyer to slow the rotation of the Earth to give us 27 hour days, we're not ever going to "have" more time.
However, by reprioritizing what we're doing with our existing time, we can create the effect of making more time.
We have to decide what is important to us. What is truly important. Sometimes we don't like doing that because we have attachments to old "time consumers" we're in the habit of dealing with... even if they don't serve us well.
As a very simple firsthand example, when I first got on Steemit back in February, I kept telling myself that nothing much would happen because I "needed more time" in order to "properly" take up blogging again. I was saying this, knowing that I truly and genuinely wanted to keep a blog-- something I really enjoyed, over a decade ago. But-- like many people I have talked to since-- I made the excuse that I "didn't have time for one more social media platform."
Fall leaves with a dusting of snow
What I actually needed to do was to make blogging a priority in my life. And, specifically, make it a higher priority than a hobbyist Facebook page and two groups I was managing... and which were consuming 60-90 minutes of my time, daily.
Of course, I had an "internal dialogue" insisting "But I can't just give up my groups! I have several years invested in them." But I realized there was no rule saying I had to end the groups, I could just hand them over to someone else to be admin. Which I did.
A very simple example-- but nonetheless an illustration of "making" time through reprioritizing the content of our lives.
It's Only "Too Late" if You Don't Start NOW...
Red flower in our yard
Another excuse we often put in our own way is that it has become "too late" to start something; be it a project, a hobby, learning a skill or something else.
Unless you're actually referring to a physical ship that's leaving for the new world and won't be back... odds are it's really not "too late."
Again, I can use Steemit as a super simple example:
When I was introduced to this community through a friend's post at the end of January, one of my (very genuine) thoughts was that it was "too late" for me to join and be successful here, since the "early adopters" had been there since June of 2016 and I had already missed the boat.
Of course, I know today that was "nonsense thinking."
And yet? Many of us use thoughts like that as reasons for not doing things we really want to do.
When we feel such thoughts come up, it's always a good time to stop and ask ourselves "Is that really TRUE?" Most likely it isn't. For example, I also remember thinking it was "too late" to invest in eBay stock back in 1999 after it had already gone up 1000%... and yet the eBay stock I did buy went up another 400% by 2004!
Seaside sunset
When we declare ourselves to be "too late" for an opportunity, we're simply choosing to focus on "what HAS been" rather than "what WILL be." Of course, sometimes we are too late with investments (especially) but we should still look at the fundamentals, rather than make sweeping generalizations!
Think about it! Is it "too late" to invest in Steem, because it was 10c back in March, and now it's over $2.00? If you still believe in the platform, and what we're doing here... of COURSE not! The price of Steem could go to $20 within a couple of years... and 1000% would be a brilliant return on your investment... so why "throw it away" just because you weren't onboard from 10c to $2.00?
So, in closing, remember to put things like "not enough time" and "too late" in their proper perspectives, before you make any firm decisions. More often than not, you'll be really happy you did!
How about YOU? Have you ever used the "I don't have enough time," or "I'll do it when I have more time" line of reasoning? Did you end up thinking "I wish I had..." later on? Do you consider yourself a good time manager? Do you have the "time consuming" events in your life prioritized in the best possible way? Or could you do with some re-prioritizing? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- start the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Posted at 20170621 14:08 PDT
This post was worth giving time to. I really like the way you've stated about making time rather than having time. Of course, we have to prioritize our work. What if we don't prioritize? The answer is that we'll end up having less time for things that are more important in our lives. For things that we have more value for, should be our first priority.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment!
I remember reading an article once in which the author talked about priorities, and how many people never achieve their dreams because they are so busy paying attention to their "supporting roles" that they never have time to get to the "main event."
Yes, that's very true. Now just think About it how devastating it can be. If we're not able to perform our main roles, then what are we up to? Playing only the supporting roles in our life will not take us anywhere. Here, it very much highlights the power of time management and prioritizing things.
Indeed, I agree with you!:)
I understand you.
The most valuable thing in the universe for sure. In essence all we have is - right now. One thing I learned from my grandfather was to cut out people who either "waste my time" or "steal my time". It sounds hard or ruthless but I must have saved years of my life doing that. By doing that first step I found myself getting better at organizing my time so that I can do the things that give me joy or fulfill me in some way. However, even so, I still find myself getting trapped into doing things I dont really want to do.
It is not easy. All we can do is try harder my friend.
Wisdom there. We do the best we can, and when we know better, we'll do better. My wife and I are downsizing our lives... mostly because we've come to realize that maintaining our immediate "infrastructure of life" is a time sink. We bought a fairly large rambling property some years back, based on having kids and grandkids running through here on a frequent basis. As it has turned out, two of our kids are unlikely to have kids and the third does have kids but they live clear across the country... and the "time sink" is that we've been putting effort into maintaining a paradigm that didn't actually come to pass. So we've been redefining where we get our true joy in life.
Funny how life does not always turn out as we planned or expected.
For years I misunderstood evolution. I always thought it was "survival of the fittest". -I was wrong. A doctor friend of mine educated and corrected me on this and explained that . what makes a species evolve and survive is not the strongest or the fittest, but those that can change or adapt to changes.
When I learned this, it changed my entire way of how I lived my life. Instead of trying to the strongest, I simply find of a way of adapting to when things change. Since then I have become far more content with life. We are built to change and adapt - instead trying to be a stone, I try to be like water and go with the flow.
Good look my friend, I am sure things will work out for you and your partner. You are an intelligent and wise person, you will adapt I am sure.
I appreciate that story... I think it's a misconception many labor under; "survival of the fittest" being such a buzz-phrase for our modern competitive time. I hadn't thought much about it, but remember some of my Darwinian studies... including precisely how the animal life of the Galapagos Islands adapted to their harsh surroundings... they weren't "the fittest."
Yes, plans change... so we change with them.
Time management is very important and we surely have more time than we usually like to admit. I know I personally could shave off some of my netflix and chill time in order to use that time more productively. Thanks for the thoughtful reminder.
I know I actually have a pretty ample supply of time... a lot of mine gets "used up" because my daily wanderings are incredibly chopped up... sometimes I will go for hours and never have longer than 5 minutes to pay attention to any one thing. THAT is where I need the most work on my time management... but I work with the public, and they don't really care what my "schedule" is. :-P
A guy once told me: "We all have the same amount of time- 24 hrs in a day- 7 days in a week... It's all what you decide to do with it." Makes sense to me! I forgot where I was going with this lol. I'm writing two days in advance- can't get out of the zone.
Priorities. Yep... remembering to focus on the "main events" of our lives rather than eternally making sure all the "support stuff" is done.
Thanks... that's what I was trying to get to when I got lost!
All of us have enough time in this world. It is how each one of us use this time for the things that we prioritize. When we say "I'm busy.", there really is something we are doing that we prioritize. It is time management. It is true that we can't have more time, but the way we spend that time is the one we should cherish the most.
I think a lot of people don't take the time to stop and look at what they really want... so they just fall into habits where everything just sort of gets done, but the important stuff isn't put in the front.
I knew in the depth of me that we have time to manage to accomplish anything we really want. Like you just did here, posting this, because you really wanted to, you found time.
I adopted this philosophy some years ago, and it somehow paid. =D
Feel free to check my last post, maybe you’ll like it! <3
I think if something reallymatters to us, well find a way to do it... and we'll "make time" by taking something less important out of our personal life equation.
Whenever I am thinking about time management, I am reminded about saying "no". I have gotten better about being able to say no, but I still have a ways to go. Saying no has never been easy for me, but it is extremely valuable in the fight to free up time.
I try to remind myself of the old truism "NO is a complete sentence" because otherwise I end up rambling on for 20 minutes with reasons and rationalizations behind the "no," as a result of which it ends up sounding more like a "maybe." Which is the entrance point to getting trapped into something I really don't want any part of!
I say this a lot, but you're right -- the problem isn't that I don't have enough time or that I have less time than before. It's that I'm not making the most of my time by using it for the things I really want. I need to prioritize better. And probably build in some downtime too. 🙂
The enemy of my own time is "fragmentation." Everything is three minutes here, five minutes there, six minutes over there. I "waste" time because I don't have enough situations where I am working with something long enough to truly hit my stride. I still do a good job at most things... but I could do better.
Very nice so true what you say and if you want to go something there is time.. There is always time
Yes, there is pretty much always time.