Time is Something You Make
One question I get a lot is: “Where do you find the time?” It’s a good question, but it’s the wrong one. Few of us have vast reserves of free time lying around, waiting to be found. If you want to do something, you have to make the time.
Making time is like budgeting money. You need to work out we’re you’re spending your time and cut out unnecessary expenses.
One hour less television a week is one extra hour to work on your magnum opus: whatever that may be.
(This post is an attempt to practice the Little Words, Big Meaning principle.)
Another idea is to use your dead time — if you’re waiting on a train or in line at the grocery store, you may not be able to write a blog post, but you can probably be thinking about it and maybe jot down ideas or even an outline on a notepad or pda. Little bits can add up.
Re: tv — The average American (sorry, don’t know about Australians) is said to watch an average of two to three hours of tv a day. I think we can all cut back.
The Simple Dollar website has an excellent suggestion: if you want to free up some time, get rid of some “stuff.” This can be somewhat counterintuitive for some people. A lot of times, we think that having all sorts of stuff saves us time–when in fact the opposite is true.
Example: Lose your television and your cell phone for one week. Well, duh. Time freedom!
I don’t own a Tv, the day never seems to end! there is so much time i have to find new things to do…
lose the tv i mean.
N
So very true! Making time is about prioritizing the things that are waiting to take up your time. Saying “I don’t have the time!” is an excuse; a way to scapegoat out of the responsibility of wise time-management.
Technology has brought us a lot of great things, but along with it, it’s also managed to provide us with a million and one ways to misuse our time.
Try taking a week off from your cell, laptop, internet, television, radio, etc. Most people will find it hell at first, but once you get used to it, you almost don’t want to go back!
(Sad to say - My productivity tends to shoot through the roof when I don’t have my laptop within reach.)
Hi Skellie,
One day have only 24 hours. It sounds like you and the commentators above me still have not had the experience of having to fully use those 24 hours ;-) If that is the case I believe you are lucky.
No TV and no other distractions (including sleep) - in periods of my life 24 hours have been way to short.
What I try to say is that some times you just have too many tasks and too little time even though you are killer effective.
Having said that, I believe that making priorities is an exercise you’ll constantly have to do throughout your life. Knowing what you really want - and knowing what you want more than anything else is a gift.
I guess this means that I can find time to start my next project, and work on my existing blog, and sort out my house, and go to work. It’s just that I’ll have to stop surfing lolcats and icanhascheezburger.
Future goals, or mindless present pleasure. Tough call.
I use this phrase all the time, and it’s very powerful.
If you did not do something you said you would, most people will say that they did not have or did not find the time to do it.
How about you did not make the time to do it. Ouch…painfully in your face that you are in control.
Following your example of “little words, big meaning principle,”
time can be budgeted when it’s driven by purpose.
Great post, great blog!
Yep so true, everybody has exactly the same 24 hours in every single day. Time can never be lost, bought, stolen, given away or traded in any way, shape or form. Time just is, and yet, time is all we have.
Perfectly agree, there is no “i have no time,” it’s up to us to make our time.
Learning how to use available time that suits your individual preference is important. I’m reading Zen do Done I bought from http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com Just using two of the habits in the book has given me more time in my day.
Just getting up an hour earlier can make such a difference too.
Free time can be productive, can help you to clean your thoughts and find your niche watching TV.
Nice Post.. thanks
I like your experiment with Little Words, Big Meaning. It takes courage, and gave me an idea to try it in a post…
Many knew this but they still let their time lying around idle and at the end of the day, they claimed that thee is not much time left for them.
To Plonkee. Future goals or mindless present.
Our desire to achieve our goals is present as well as our enjoyment.
I have interests to occupy three lifetimes - all of which could be pursued on the way to a sustainable planet full of joyour people.
It comes down to doing as much as I can of what I feel most deeply satisfying. This is a different approach to goals and time. I invite you to experiment with it and see if it doesn’t help you be more focussed and less stressed.
Hi, Skellie :-)
I really enjoyed your post. You are so right — one has to make the time. I’ve recently had to ‘make’ time to have quiet time. My brain was on overload with so much going in all the time (smile). I’m on week 5 of no radio or entertainment when I’m out driving. Wow, what a difference. I can hear myself think now. :-)
Love the idea of Little Words, Big Meaning (I had missed that post!) so I’m going to work on adopting that on my blog. Thanks for the great reminders!
I like the concept with Little Words, Big Meaning.
We set our own priorities. If we can not find the time then we have spent that time doing something else. Hopefully something more important.
Great Post! Some of my friends have also asked me the same question. How do you find time to blog after 12hr+ day office work.
I found this site very late. A couple of days back only. But the contents are awesome. I liked it very much!
Wow. Really profound. Really true. Really needed to read this. Thank you.
[...] As you can see from my list above, the phrase “NO TIME” is the key. Will you say 24 hours is not enough for you? I wouldn’t say so especially after reading Skelliewag’s Time is Something You Make. [...]
My advice is to give up TV completely. It seems impossible until you do it, and about two days later you can’t believe you ever threw all that time away.
Commute time is also good–if you drive, you can listen to useful tapes and you can record ideas into a recorder, and if you take a train or other public transport, you can do tons of work in a notebook.
I’d save all the time I needed if I sold my child to the gypsies, but I quite like him so I won’t be doing that.
(Oh yeah, one more thing I’ve found–don’t give up sleep to make time. You lose more productivity and mental clarity than you realize. My guess is that 99% of us reading this have an hour of not-that-useful Internet time we could give up, which would be a far smarter choice.)
Another favorite for me: bringing a sandwich and working through my day-job lunch hour on my own stuff.
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Hi Skellie,
My first time on your site. I was just about to start writing my ebook when I ran across your site. I didn’t want to start as I wanted to manage my time a bit and I see these tips. I needed a boost and yes, time is money isn’t it. If I’m patient with my time, then possibly this will be a wonderful result.
Thanks for sharing!
MM
I find what works for to actually create time. I find time to be sort of elastic, weird I know. But seriously for me it works like this. I do what I am doing while I am doing it. Not doing something else mentally while I am “working” And I also alway complete everything I start. I like to get dones not almost done or half done. I find this frees my headspace up. So I am not stuck thinking about doing other things that are incomplete. I like a low stress headspace. I make lists of things that need doing then go do them until theyre done. I feel SOOOO much better when I am productive and things getting done. Anwyays thats what works for me.