“It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportunity.”—Orison Swett Marden
Lack of time is a lousy excuse. Yet, we use it quite frequently.
There is an old adage: “If you want something done, ask a busy man (or woman).” There is truth to this. Busy is not “over-scheduled”. Multi-tasking is often a cover for idleness. The “busy” person is the effective person.
If one wants to be a busy person—the “great worker”—one must cut the waste. One must eliminate the things in the day that rob one of his or her effectiveness. Remember: “opportunity costs”. When we remember this, there is so much more we can do.
I teach a course in exercise motivation and adherence. Of course, barriers to exercise is a topic for discussion. Among the greatest of these is time. We often have time for everything but exercise. Nonsense.
If time (that is lack of time) is your excuse—for not doing anything you should be doing—you need to evaluate how you are using your time. Years ago, I worked with a fitness salesperson who had a pretty good skill at convincing people they needed a gym membership. One thing I learned from him was how to counter the “time” excuse. His approach was to ask the person to examine his or her use of time. It is rare that someone is actually using all of one’s time with full effectiveness. In short, we waste a lot of time watching television, surfing the Internet, scrolling (or trolling) social media, etc. Of course, we have to work, eat, sleep, spend time with family, and other necessary/important things. We can, however, manage our time more effectively. It is all a matter of priority.
Stephen Covey wrote much about importance and urgency in time management. Rory Vaden, author of Procrastinate on Purpose) refers to “productive procrastination”. He adds a third dimension—significance—to Covey’s matrix. He suggests that, beyond prioritizing for efficiency, we prioritize according to how long something matters (e.g., “opportunity cost”). After all, everything we do will be done at the expense of something that is left undone. Thus, we do what is most impactive for us and others. We carpe momento!
Time? We have the time we make for what is most important.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow!