Blog Archives
Make Much of Time
In the book I’m currently reading, the main character’s 57-year-old father says at one point, “I know I’m old…”
No, author, you’re displaying the folly of youth. People in their fifties don’t think they’re old. They think, what the hell happened? How is Steven Tyler almost 70? How could Back to the Future have come out 30 years ago? And if Madonna still looks that good in a leotard, then I couldn’t possibly be older than 29, right?
The older you get, the faster time moves, until finally you don’t feel it moving at all. You think you’ve got time for all the things you’ve planned for today, but then you blink and it’s next week.
I’m finding that I really need to be careful about time, because it gets away from me too easily otherwise. I have to schedule things (especially time to write), or I won’t get to it until it becomes an emergency. I hate schedules, but I don’t have a choice.
I didn’t used to be like this. From the time I was in college, I felt that days were too short, but I managed to get things done. Now, hours pass like minutes. All too often, I want those hours back.
Maybe it’s getting older, or maybe it’s the time sucking properties of the Internet. It’s probably a combination of the two. The older I get, the more I realize that I need to be cognizant of time. Because there’s not as much left as there used to be.
Do you find that time moves faster as you get older? What time management tricks work best for you?
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You Can’t Have It All If You Try to Do It All
Priorities. We’ve all got them. That constant tension between what we must do and what we want to do.
On this celestial sphere we live on, we’re bound to just 24 hours in a day. This is a hard limit I’ve been fighting since college, without success.
Once again, I’ve taken on too much. Activities that seemed manageable have spiraled out of control, leaving me without enough time to write.
I need to write.
It can be difficult to admit that something you enjoy—something that’s satisfying and makes you feel like you’re contributing—is getting in the way of a higher priority goal.
When that happens, it’s time to step back and reassess.
If we want to reach our dreams, sometimes we have to do less instead of more. Less of things that distract us. Less of things that sap our energy.
Pushing ourselves by working more hours isn’t an effective solution. We need down time. Good exercise and good sleep make us more productive.
Writers cannot live by caffeine alone.
So here I am, re-evaluating my priorities and shedding activities that I wish I had time for but don’t.
And by doing that, with any luck, I’m getting a few steps closer to my dreams.
Do you try to do too much? How do you find balance?
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