Time is the great equalizer. Rich or poor, man or woman, black or white–24 hours is exactly what we get each day.
We all have the same amount of hours in the day, but we will all have a different number of days.
In the end, however, all of our clocks will eventually strike midnight. The carriage becomes a pumpkin, the spirit leaves the body, and that’s that. For now. [footnote]Because one day, for Christians, our empty, decaying body on earth will become a glorified body–a better, fuller, more beautiful carriage than ever before.[/footnote]
Day to day we are all equal, but how we spend our days is where the difference lies. A woman who dies at 60, who spent her days wisely, surely had a fuller life than a man who lives to 100 and squandered the majority of his days.
In The Focus Course, Shawn Blanc reminds us of the reality that everyone is using their time somehow.
Next time you go to the store, look around at everyone you see. Each one of those people has been spending all 168 hours of their week ever since they were born. I’ve been spending all 168 hours of my week, every week, since I was born. And so have you. You don’t get to not spend your time doing anything while you wait to decide what it is you want to spend your time on. Those moments will be spent, one way or another.
Everyone spends all of their time–every day. That’s a simple observation, but it struck me. No human is exempt from using their time.
We can spend time, invest our time, squander our time. We say we “save time”–perhaps through taking shortcuts or using “life hacks”–but there is no way to store up that saved time. I can’t take an hour from today and tack it onto the weekend. All of it, today only.
I sound the budgeting trumpet frequently, but I poorly budget my time. I do the things I need to, have systems to take care of my most important tasks, set reminders so I don’t forget the tiny details throughout the day, but I rarely enter a day with a clear picture of how I’ll ideally spend my time.
More often than not, time happens to me instead of me making things happen in my time.
Time may be money but money is not time. At the end of our lives, we can’t pay to tack on a few more hours or days of life.
Midnight is coming. It always does.
This isn’t about carpe diem. It’s about a revelation. A realization that each of us is using our time somehow, each and every day, and that we have no choice but to spend it. Time is more Brewster’s Millions than Groundhog Day–it’s all getting spent and there’s no doing it over.
So what do we do about this reality? To fix the problem, we need to find the problem. Let’s get to work.
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<h3>
1. Track (How You’re Spending Your Time)
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<p>
Spend a week tracking how you spend your time. The more precise the better–I’d say if you can track what you do each half hour, that would be a great start, but getting down to fifteen minute chunks is even better.
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This process is hard. I tracked my time for the aforementioned <em>Focus Course</em>. It’s a brutal process to precisely document your day, and I think the process can be skewed <em>because</em> you’re tracking your time. I don’t want to write down that I just spent 30 aimless minutes scrolling through a news feed. That’s embarrassing. But it’s reality. So write it down.
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You could use a spreadsheet, a notepad, or another app–whatever is easiest for you.
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I used <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drafts-4-quickly-capture-notes/id905337691?mt=8&at=11l4uNett">Drafts</a> and <a href="x-drafts4://x-callback-url/import_key?hidden=0&script=var%20now%20%3D%20new%20Date%28%29%3B%0Avar%20hh%20%3Dnow.getHours%28%29%3B%0Avar%20mm%20%3D%20now.getMinutes%28%29%3B%0A%0Aif%28hh%3C10%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20hh%3D%270%27%2Bhh%0A%7D%0A%0Aif%28mm%3C10%29%20%7B%0A%20%20%20%20mm%3D%270%27%2Bmm%0A%7D%20%0A%0Avar%20time%20%3D%20hh%2B%27%3A%27%2Bmm%2B%27%27%3B%0Avar%20selRange%20%3D%20getSelectedRange%28%29%3B%0AsetSelectedText%28time%29%3B%0AsetSelectedRange%28selRange%5B0%5D%2B9%2C0%29%3B&keyType=Script&uuid=A13F6DA6-A2D5-499D-B77C-51659D619F88&keyCommandSpecifier=&keyDescription=Script%20key%3A%20Insert%20current%20time%2024h&shortcutText=HH%3AMM&labelText=Insert%20current%20time%2024h">this key</a>–which will automatically install if you have Drafts on your iPhone or iPad–which inserts the time in HH:MM format and made tracking a bit <em>easier</em> (but by no means <em>easy</em>).
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Doing this for a full week will give you a better feel for how you’re regularly spending your time.
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<h3>
2. Evaluate (What You Spent Your Time Doing)
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Once you’ve tracked your time, now comes the ugly part–evaluation.
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Are you spending time doing things you want?
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How are you wasting your time?
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Are you working enough?
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Are you working too much?
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Are you ignoring your family?
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Are you doing things that move you toward your goals?
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What are the things you want to be doing but don’t do?
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<li>
What are the things you want to stop doing but haven’t?
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It’s eye opening. Perhaps encouraging for you, or maybe a bit sickening. As our <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjNM4eItNRA">School House Rock</a></em> friends remind us, “Knowledge is power”<em>.</em>
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<p>
Look for the activities you did daily. Identify changes to make. Highlight the areas you're pleased with. And then, let's start adjusting.
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<h3>
3. Adjust (to Spend Your Time in an Ideal Way)
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<p>
Now that we know how we’re spending our time and in what ways we would like to improve, we start taking baby steps.
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Be gracious. You’re not going to nail this in one fell swoop.
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Start with one area that you can improve on. Maybe it’s a morning or <a href="https://jshirk.com/blog/evening-routine/">evening routine</a>.
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<strong>This week, swap one thing you want to stop doing (or spend less time doing) with one thing you wan to spend more time doing</strong>. That’s it–one thing for this week. Once you’ve swapped one activity for another, wait a week, help that new change stick, and next week make another small change.
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I always find it easier to swap something good in place of something bad, instead of just trying to drop it outright. When it comes to time, there is no elimination, only replacement.
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You can stop checking your email 20 times a day, but you’re going to have the urge, and what will you do when it hits you?
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<p>
Make sure you create some times of cushion or margin as you draw up an ideal schedule and begin making changes. Expect unexpected things every day.
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<h2>
Wrapping Up
</h2>
<p>
Years of bad habits won’t change overnight. But a little progress each day will make a huge difference at the end of a year. Compound interest is a force to be reckoned with.
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<p>
The process of budgeting your time is harder than budgeting your money.
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<blockquote>
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We’ve <em>only</em> been wasting money for the majority of our adult lives, but we’ve perfected wasting time over our entire lives.
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</blockquote>
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The trenches of squandered seconds are deeply dug. You can’t climb out of this pit in a day. But each moment we have a choice. We can change our habits. We have control over our choices and how we spend our time.
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We don’t know how many days we’ll have, but if we’re breathing today, we can do our best to make the most of it.
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