Can you Make Time?
June 3, 2011
Well, not literally, I’m sure. Like most of the busy people I know out there, we have come to the realization that there are only 24 hours in each day even though we try to squeeze out more. But no matter how we try those extra hours remain elusive.
I hear people all the time say “If I could just find the time” or “One day I’ll find the time to get that done.” I’m here to tell you that you’ll never FIND time. Once each second, minute and hour has past, it’s gone. You cannot find it again. but don’t despair – there is a way: You have to MAKE the time. Make the time to post new material; make the time to play ball with your kids; make the time to get that workout in. It may also be called Re-Prioritizing your day and determining what is really important for you to get done and what is not.
I live in Nevada and our legislature is in session only every other year (yes, that’s right) and I am there quite a bit when the gavel drops. I have little time for anything else but that it seems let alone all the things I want to do personally – the past month has been extraordinarily business thus my less frequent posts. I can admit, albeit with some reservation, that I couldn’t make the time to do all the things I would have liked. But I still managed to be extremely productive despite my hectic, frantic schedule. How? I took out all the time sucking items from my day.
Television – I’m not a proponent of television and normally don’t watch that much anyway. I do watch news and occasionally a show now and then. My wife and I like movies so we get them from Netflix. in order for me to have more “creative” time I cut out television almost altogether. I spend hours a day in the car going to and from the legislature so I would listen to news there – I didn’t have to watch at home. Time created – 1 hour per day.
Lawn work – I can honestly say I love to piddle around in my yard. I take pride in my home and like the way I can keep my property looking nice. But I found that it became less of a priority when things piled on to my schedule. The worse the lawn looked the more stress out I got. My solution – I hired a teenage boy to do it for me. He comes by once a week to trim, weed and mow [and bag] my lawn. I pay him $15 for about 1hour of work. I’m just one lawn he mows regularly so it’s good for him. Now I’m not stressed and saved me some time. Time created – 1 hour per week.
These two items alone gained me 7 hours a week! What could you do with 7 hours? I know there are more areas where I can make time by stopping something that really isn’t that constructive to my creativity and what I specifically what to accomplish. In business, and personally, I try to adhere to the 80/20 rule, and that’s a whole other topic.
What I can say is stop trying to find time, make it.
