Why I Do Not Accept Time As An Excuse
“The dog ate my homework” is an excuse that every teacher would laugh at and immediately dismiss. I feel the same way when people say, “I don’t have time.” This statement is almost always a lie, so I laugh and dismiss it. The truly sad part is that most people don’t realize they have time. They have managed their time so poorly that they waste hours upon hours every single day. When you take that and pair it with a mindset that says “I have no time” instead of a mindset that says “I will find time,” you get a person whose heart believes that he or she doesn’t have time.
Writing a blog post to highlight that you suck at managing time would provide zero value. So I am simply going to talk about how I make time with the hope that it will help you. I view my day as 24 one-hour time blocks and then plan from there. Sleeping takes up six blocks/hours, getting ready takes up one, and then I am left with 17 hours to work and see people. That is equal to 119 hours a week that can be used for whatever I want. Let’s say I devote 10 hours a day to working. I am still left with seven hours every single day that I can devote to other things; that’s 49 hours a week that’s open.
The next step after you map out your time is to make a commitment. I commit to limiting my meetings to exactly one hour on packed days, never longer. When people say let’s hang out, I commit to making it happen. I religiously follow my calendar and commit fully to everything on it. Just like being rich, it takes a mindset—a mindset that says I have time, not a mindset that says you have no time and causes you to walk around in self-pity all day.
If you want to maintain more relationships and have more time do the things you want to do, here is what I would recommend: map out everything in your calendar that is recurring, such as sleep, small groups, and apple juice and cookie runs. Then, when people want to hang out or you want to do something, you can look at your calendar and immediately know when you have time. Being disciplined sucks, but the fruit that will come from it will be oh so sweet.
In closing, I don’t accept the lack of time as an excuse because I believe we were designed for greater things than busyness, and if someone never has time or thinks he or she never has time, then this person is missing out on something or someone that matters.
P.S. If you are really looking to make the most out of your time, I would recommend using these apps: Everlist, Roger, Feedly, Audible, and Yoshi.
