When you ask someone “how are you?” what is the typical response you get? For me, it’s some variation of “Oh, I’m SO busy!” Am I right? Our culture prizes being busy. Successful, yes. Smart, of course. But busy? Ding, ding, ding. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner. We wear “busy” like a badge of honor! I’ll admit that it’s an easy stock response to have. Who wouldn’t want to feel (or appear) to be important because we’re juggling multiple projects, having our calendar double booked, being involved in lots of different things and having decisions to make, knowing that people are relying on us.
Here’s the catch: busy doesn’t mean you’re productive. And it usually doesn’t make us happier or healthier. Typically it means the exact opposite. Busy usually equates to a feeling of having too much to do and too little time. We’ve all been there and done that. But, what we if we didn’t. What if we just decided to not be busy. To set a realistic number of thing we need to accomplish in one day instead of trying to somehow defy the laws of nature that say we each have the same 24 hours in a day.
What if we got clear on what our priorities were for the day and had clear action steps to accomplish those goals and said no to everything that didn’t directly support accomplishing those goals? What if we set boundaries for how we spend our time, saying yes to things that are truly important and no to those that aren’t. What if we prioritized our sleep instead of trading it in an attempt to get five more things crammed into the day. Image what it would be like to ensure that we’re setting aside me time each day instead of shoving a salad down our throats at our desk at lunch and skipping the gym this time… 30 this time’s in a row.
One thing that’s important to remember about time is that it’s our only non-renewable resource. You can make more friends, memories and money. But you can’t make more time… you can only get smarter with how you spend what you have.
Let’s take the opportunity that a new year brings to get realistic about how we’re spending our time. My challenge for the next week is to focus more awareness on exactly you’re spending your time. Those five minutes in an elevator mindlessly scrolling through Instagram could be an opportunity to develop a gratitude practice or send a text or two of encouragement to someone. Could you take the stairs instead of the elevator to help get your steps in for the day. Could your commute become personal development time or a chance to listen to a book on tape that you’ve been wanting to read.
We all have the same 24 hours to spend, it’s how you invest it that makes a difference.
Leave a Reply