“Where does the time go?”
“Time flies!” “Time waits for no man!”
We’ve all heard
sayings about time throughout our life. When I was about 12 years old I
remember I made a comment about how time flies, my father in turn said, “yeah,
and it only goes faster the older you get.” It’s true. Not because the clock
changes or the seconds, nor the minutes…. Our lives do. We have more
responsibilities, more time consuming tasks, we are pulled in so many different
directions all the time!
Have you ever
thought about people who do significant things with their life, make a real
difference in this world and in others’ lives? People who always seem to have
time to do what they want, when they want? Have you ever said to yourself, “if
I only had more time I would do this or that?” We ALL get the same 24 hours
in a day. No one gets more, or less.
It’s what we do with those hours and minutes that make a difference.
Here are a few
questions to ask yourself – What am I doing with my time? Is it productive? Is
it wasteful? Is it endearing or resentful? Is it edifying or draining you?
I am great at
multi-tasking, but I have had to take a good, hard look at my own time
management lately. There are so many things I want to accomplish and yet, I
have been pretty slack in getting them done…..including this blog! Where is my
time going? Well, I will be brutally honest and tell you that a lot has been
wasted. YES, wasted! On what you ask? While evaluating my time and what I was
doing with it I realized that there are a few things that were robbing me personally
of my time - my cell phone and the TV. Ok, I just heard the gasps of people
reading this as they can’t imagine giving either of those up.
Think about how
much time you scroll through Facebook on your phone, how often do you check
your email? Every time you hear a little “ding” announcing something new has
been posted or sent to you do you pick up your phone and look, and then
continue to look at more on there. It’s amazing how we have become a society of
scrollers. I am guilty too. I told myself the other night that I would just pop
on Facebook real quick to take a peek and see what’s up and I was finished scrolling
through an hour later. There was nothing of real importance on there at the
time either.
How many of you
reach for your Smartphone first thing in the morning when you wake up? I don’t
mean to turn off your alarm, yes I do that too. Do you check messages, texts,
emails, Facebook? Is it the last thing you look at before you go to bed? I was
in bed ready to go to sleep when I got on Facebook. I lost an hour of sleep
that I truly needed. Here’s one for you…. Do you check your phone in the middle
of the night if you got up to go to the bathroom? My cell phone is a necessity.
It is my lifeline to my family when I am not home. However, I don’t need to use it all the time
when I am home. I don’t go overboard on using my phone for everything. I
haven’t been on Facebook in a couple of days. I do check email often but I
don’t play games on my phone, I really don’t have time for that. I know I can
shave off some time wasting here!
TV – the other
enemy of my time. There are nights I just want to veg and tune out the world
and my day. 4-5 hours later I am ready for bed, where I then got on my phone (again)
and spent another hour. 5-6 hours WASTED! I could have been doing something
more productive like laundry, dishes, writing! Even if I needed a break from
the mundane chores of life, I still could have been more productive with my
time (especially on commercials!). None of these things were edifying or
changing me as a person. I’m not saying
TVs and electronics are evil. Everything is better with moderation. So often we
are caught up in the “fun, easy” things in life that we think demand our attention,
when in fact they aren’t demanding, but persuasive because they are fun and
distracting. This causes us to forget about the important things that should
have our attention.
What are we
feeding ourselves on a daily basis? I’m not talking about food for your
stomach, but food for your mind! The most influential people in this world are
ones who soak up knowledge and invest in their minds. They read, and not just
for entertainment but to broaden their perspective. They spend their time doing
things that are truly useful, not wasteful. I began reading a great book on leadership for
about 15-20 a day. Actually, I am juggling 3 books right now and they are
fantastic. I have cut back the TV time and sometimes don’t even turn it on. I
have even curbed my son’s watching time too. We actually spent 2 hours playing
games yesterday. That was precious time making memories instead of watching a
movie I probably have already seen.
The one thing I did notice with the TV off,
the chaos was quiet too! The TV is more of a distraction and noise maker with
everything else going on. I’m not ready to give up my DirecTV just yet, I do
like watching The Voice and a few other shows. However, the DVR is a great
invention and I can watch it when I feel I have other things done that needed
my attention… including my son!
Those who seem to
have all the time to do a lot of things in their life have mastered their time
management. They value other important things rather than the time wasters. They
are only time wasters if we let them steal our time away from what we need and
want to do. Take a few days to look at all the things you did in those 48-72
hours, actually take a whole week. Make note of everything each day throughout
the day and see where your time really goes and then take a look at what you
can eliminate, reduce or move around to give you the time you really need to do
the things you really want. You’ll be
amazed at how much time you can find for yourself and even for your family.
Always remember the
clock doesn’t stop even though we want to. Also, take TIME for you. Everyone
depends on you and you have to recharge, refresh and regroup for them and you
too!
Smiles –
Marcy
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