I don’t know about you, but I feel like at times I’m so busy I cannot possibly fit anything more into schedule–my days and week seemed packed to the gills. Things are a blur of color and shapes. It’s this sense of having too many irons in the fire has been intricately written into my story―never to be erased. In those moments time seems to be commodity on the edge of extension.
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
Okay you caught me red handed saying “busy” again, but I cannot seem to shake how no matter how busy we truly are, most of us are not as busy as we think.
I used to be one of those people until I started tracking the time in my day and figuring out just how much time I was devoting to thinks like sleeping, work, chores, and other responsibilities. It turns out I was not as busy as I thought and despite thinking I was working far more than 40 hours a week; the truth of the matter was I truly wasn’t. There were many times I thought I spent hours doing work, when I was barely spending an hour getting these jobs done. There were times I thought I was spending hours writing or editing images and checking emails, when much of it was spent browsing the wonderful world of the Internet.
Hi! I’m Matt . . . and I have and Internet problem, but chances are I may not be alone. It’s a bad problem to have after I read that there are so many of us who believe that we are too busy for an extra second of fun time, when in all reality, we are not. The good news is that there are ways to determine if you truly are as busy as you think you are.
Over the last few years I have been working to kill this cult of business and some days are better than others, what gets me through is my time diary. It has allowed me to re-write my story and to allow margin back into my daily life. It has allowed me focus my day, to get honest with myself about where I was spending my time. It allows me to see everything I spend time on such as checking Facebook or Twitter when I could be saving that time and spending it elsewhere, like being with my family, writing, or taking a 30-minute photo walk for exercise.
He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.
I don’t want to sound like one of those crazy life coaches, because I’m far from it, but I gotta be honest with you it works. If you build this into your daily routine and do these little things and pay attention to where every minute of your day is going, you may also find that you simply not as busy as you think and that you do have time to have a happier, healthier, and more productive life.
Many times, by looking at your own personal schedule and the breakdown of your day, you can get rid of the things that are taking up too much time. You then can replace them with things that make you more productive or organized. The result will be a better, more productive life that makes you feel like you are less busy.
The only question is, are you willing to take the time to make more time in your busy life?
In a world moving way too fast, do you need focus because you fill every “spare” moment rather than taking an intermission to be present in every moment? Checkout my book Framing Faith and sign up for exclusive updates and give aways.
