“Time = Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life.”– Alan Lakein
I have been a little preoccupied with time lately and not just about how fast it seems to go these days, but how I choose to spend it.
I really want to be sure (and I know that this is the case for many of us) that I do not consume this precious commodity in mindless, habitual practices. It is so easy to allow things to occupy us that do not actually bring joy, and these ‘distractions can quickly add up. The end result is that time is lost forever.
“Time is free but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back” - Harvey Mackay
I feel that this thought process resulted from spending a week with my family in Airlie Beach. I didn’t feel like this last time I was there back in May, but this time the laissez-faire vibe is working its magick, causing me to reflect and redefine many things.
“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. -Seneca
So, on my short flight back home earlier this week, with little else to do but to ponder, I decided to calculate my use of my time in order to determine whether I am spending it consciously. By examining what I deem worthy of my time, I could ensure that I spend it wisely and maybe I could slow the pace right down by eliminating what isn’t truly serving me.
Of the 168 hours in a week, on average we sleep for one third, which means that 112 hours remain for us to invest.
I considered all of the non-negotiable things that I do with these hours, such as looking after myself, caring for others in the home, and outside of the home too, the day to day running of the house, plus work and travel etc.
I found the trickiest bit was defining my work hours because I work for myself in my home clinic, and online, and the lines get awfully blurred quite frequently. In amongst it all is the minutes spent on social media, which is these days rather essential to my work, but my time spent in this area seems to have blown out.
My simple little exercise brought me to the conclusion that I really need to make some changes! In particular, I need to rethink the time that I spend on my laptop, phone and social media. These three are the grey zone which need to be pulled apart and scrutinised. Needless to say, they are part and parcel of my life (and many of our lives) however, I feel that I have gradually allowed the balance to slide in the wrong direction.
The potentially unnecessary time spent in this area is not serving me in a myriad of ways. We are all aware of the positives and the negatives of technology and social media as there is so much research available, but it can slip our minds. I came across this interesting article about technology and our brains here.
The upshot of this exercise is that I am taking a break from writing my newsletter while I work out exactly how I want to be investing my time.
I hope that you find this topic helpful for how you spend your own time, please feel free to comment below.
Thank you for your support, I have enjoyed connecting with you.
Bright blessings
Tracey x
“Sometimes I feel like if you just watch things, just sit still and let the world exist in front of you – sometimes I swear that just for a second time freezes and the world pauses in its tilt. Just for a second. And if you somehow found a way to live in that second, then you would live forever.”– Lauren Oliver
What a wise move, to consider so many things with intentionality. That always feels like the answer to me - am I drifting, allowing time to be swallowed up, or am I using it. I'm even okay with time set aside for the 'idling' ... it suits my creativity. But it is always good to reflect on it. Enjoy the break. See you on the other side. Barrie and JoJo
That's great to hear how you will be managing your time/life in a more positive way. I am in this thought process right now, as I witness myself wasting some of it. I'm glad that I recognise this at least, for starters. I hope you bring about more enjoyment instead of using social media. 🙂