A Timely Reminder …

Humans are the only living things with any perception of time.

In fact, time is a man-made construct to create reference points so we can make sense of the passing of ‘time’. It only exists in our minds.

Imagine having a conversation with someone about the past or the future without having a reference point to focus on. No one would understand which particular point in time you were talking about.

Strolls down memory lane would be meaningless, was that last week or last year? And meetings and appointments in the future would be a nightmare, no one would know when to arrive.

Our idea of time is a way to organise our lives better. Being organised doesn’t constrain us, it gives us more freedom.

Yet how many of us really spend all of our time wisely?

We think we have an unlimited supply of it because it’s impossible for us to think so far into the future. It’s a case of ‘I’m young, I’ve got plenty of time.’

As we get older it just becomes, ‘I’ll do that later, I’ve got plenty of time.’

However, time, for us, is a finite resource. And no matter who we are, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. The only variation is the number of days we have.

It’s said that procrastination is the thief of time, but time passes regardless of how you use it. As ingenious as we are, and as much as we like to control our environment, we cannot manipulate time, nor can we make or find time.

Time just is, and time does its own thing, it has no concern for anything.

Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves.

Life is a series of small chunks of time. The unallocated chunks aren’t always consecutive. If you use what’s available to get the necessary things done, you’ll free up more time to use as you please – downtime isn’t a dirty word.

Many think they can’t do anything useful with small amounts of time.

• Those few minutes before the meeting starts.
• The time spent commuting to and from work.
• Waiting in line, waiting in waiting rooms, and waiting in general.

All those minutes add up and they can be put to good use, especially now with smart phones and other electronic devices.

Use these small gifts of time to learn something new, organise your day, record your thoughts or new ideas. Don’t underestimate what you can do in one minute, two minutes, five minutes.

I’m not talking about multi-tasking, just the times when you’re not doing anything else.

Start taking note of how long it takes to do small but necessary tasks. Household chores, getting organised, preparing for bigger tasks. They all add up to a more productive day and you’ll be surprised how little time each one takes.

I always used the excuse that I couldn’t get anything significant done in those tiny pockets of leftover time because by the time I got my head in the game it was over. And that’s true.

You need a big block of time to accomplish a more detailed and comprehensive job, but there are plenty of little jobs just as important that fit nicely into those small blocks of time.

If you time it well they can help you get your mindset ready for more focused attention.

And when you have a nice, big slab of time to work on your big project, you’ll spend more of it doing the important work, because you’ll have already sorted out the little details.

Aren’t you clever?

 

KEEP THE FAITH