There’s no such thing as
spare time. The time you get is all the
time you've got. Do something good with
it!
Evaluate
your
time wasters.
While you can’t “save”
time, you can certainly “waste” time.
Wasting time can occur when you spend it on the quick and easy instead
of the important. But if it’s quick and
easy it’s not really wasting much time is it? Hmm. I
wonder how many hours of wasted time occur over a lifetime in two or three
minute intervals.
Sometimes the important
things are big. Sometimes the urgent
(and not so important) things are small.
As a result, we’re tempted to get the small things out of the way
first. In reality, they’re not really even
in the way. They’re just there. What if, instead, we break up the big
important things into smaller “sub-tasks” and diligently apply ourselves to
them?
Now, instead of being
flabbergasted by the difficulty of a large task (and thus doing nothing), we
can more easily handle each of the sub-tasks proficiently.
The mental effect of “too-big”
is overwhelming. It’s way too difficult
to manage something like that and so you won’t.
Instead, you’ll just end up wasting time agonizing over it. Break it up for your mental health and
happiness, as well as your productivity.
Sometimes the big
important things aren't any fun. As a
result, we’d rather do something else instead.
I understand. It happens to me
all the time. Sometimes it’s just hard
to get motivated to do what we know needs to be done. The key is to find out what motivates you,
and then use that motivation to propel yourself forward.
Motivation begins with
understanding your God-given purpose. If
the goals you've set for yourself do not line up with God’s purpose for your
life, you’re guaranteed to eventually fail. Hopelessness feeds on itself and
will sink your productivity and cause you to spend your time on anything but
the right thing.
Think of time as an asset
that like money must be managed well. If it is squandered it‘s just like making
a bad investment. And it is because you have wasted it. If we’re truly going to make the most of our
time on earth, we have to stop valuing busyness as a positive thing. Busyness gets in the way of productivity.
We must learn to
stop wasting time
being busy.
For some reason, many
people have a misguided need to be busy as a way of justifying their existence.
An excerpt from Making the Most of Your Time on Earth: The Clock is Ticking... by D. Kirk Buchanan (coming soon - expected release date Jan. 2013).
