Like Sands Through The Hourglass...
Do you feel like there are not enough hours in the day? Even though I took two naps today already, and it’s only 2 o’clock, I still feel like I just don’t have the time to do all the things I want to do. I don’t usually take naps anymore but I didn’t sleep well and I had a very long day yesterday. But I always feel like I’m failing to do everything I think I should do.
Is this a figment of my imagination, the fact that there is not enough time in a day? Where does the time go exactly? And what am I doing with my time? I know I waste some time on social media and browsing through online shopping sites, but I have gotten better about that. Especially social media, online shopping I could improve a bit. I don’t buy, I just browse but it’s a problem. The reason I started doing it anyways was so that it sort of makes up for real shopping.
But I digress. I’m wondering if I can spend my time more efficiently. I read an article in the New York Times about the fact that efficiency is not about time management but more about our feelings when we are doing things. Like if we are exhausted or bored, we will not do things as fast and not get as much done.
I think both things are true, how we spend our time matters and so does how we feel while doing things. I know I get a lot more done after I meditate, in fact, I can work out longer if I meditate beforehand. My mindset is more calm and patient after I have some time to myself meditating. I also know that the more active I am in general, the more I get done. It’s the inertia thing, an object in motion remains in motion, and an object at rest remains at rest.
I spent many years remaining at rest and now that I am in motion I am doing more than I have ever done probably in my entire life. But I still feel like I’m not able to do enough. Do you feel like this too, or is it just me? I have to say another time that I do things that are completely unproductive is after I get home and eat dinner. I get home at seven and by the time I’m done with dinner, all I want to do is watch T.V. or a movie. And that is pretty much all I do until I fall asleep.
But I feel like I need this time to unwind. Days are hard, life is hard. I don’t think that the time I spend doing absolutely nothing of value is the real problem. I’m not sure what the problem is. I want to get my two books published and one of them I have to finish putting together. It’s a lot of work and requires a lot of time. But where do I find that time?
Well, I will admit that I also waste my weekends on bullshit. I don’t do much of anything important on the weekends and I could use that time to be more productive towards my goals. So I guess there’s part of the solution. I think it might help me feel better if I worked at like Starbucks or another cafe when I’m writing so that it is not as boring. That might help.
But the real culprit I think is those times in between where I do things like browse on Facebook or browse on a shopping website. I think that is sucking my life away. Maybe you have a similar problem. The Internet, in general, is sucking time out of my life. Like when I’m working I’m always checking other browsers for bullshit. My productivity would go up quite a bit if I stopped doing that. I need to focus.
I have some huge goals in life right now and I need to use my time wisely in order to fulfill them, which I will. I will make my dreams come true because there is enough time in this life to do anything I want to do. I just need to cut out all the bullshit time I spend on unimportant things. I have recently stopped shopping like a crazy person, which was truly sucking a lot of time out of my life.
My dad told me yesterday that they have approved drones for Google to deliver things to our homes. We will soon most likely have robots that cook and clean for us, so essentially all of our meaningless tasks will be taken care of. We will soon not have any excuse to say we don’t have enough time to do what we are supposed to do with our lives.
So if you have a dream or a goal, examine where your time is being sucked away. It’s OK to have some leisure time and some time to do absolutely nothing. But it is a waste of time to scroll through the Internet all day. I will admit that even when I’m on the toilet, I scroll through social media. Gross right?
I could spend that time thinking about planning my day, or thinking profound thoughts, anything but doing that would be great. I’m glad I don’t have a waterproof thing and I can’t look at my phone in the shower because I have the most creative thoughts in the shower. We as humans, need that space to just be.
Cleaning and cooking are not a waste of time, but if you can hire someone to do some of these things, you are actually buying time. The greatest thing we ever did was get a cleaning lady. She cleans my toilet, so I can browse the Internet in clean peace.
But seriously, if you can afford it, it is so worth it to get people to help you with your chores. It opens up a lot of time for you to do what you need to do in life. Then all you have to do is decide what you want to do with your life.
That’s the hard part.
I have also decided to use those times when I’m driving or something to learn a new language, I want to learn Hindi with like Rosetta Stone in the car. Think about how much time you are wasting driving around town? If I can put that time to good use, think of the things I could accomplish.
All I know is I need to take control of my time or time will take control of me.
nina