Time is Finite
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I was prompted to write something about “time” on a post I saw written by friend @ChrisBrogan on one of his “Stories” .
I will no doubt mess up what was actually said by Chris, but what I interpreted from Chris’ comment was that we sometimes don’t realize that time is limited — we really can’t make more of it — it is what it is — 24hours — seven days a week We need to truly consider how we are making use of finite time.
It is incumbent upon us to make use of finite time. Time is finite. Time is defined. There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 12 months in a year or 365 days in a year. I don’t think I’m telling you anything that you didn’t know. The question near and dear to our hearts is how we are making use of finite time.
No ? How many times might you think, or suggest or agree with someone on a statement like “if I only had more time”, or “there’s not enough time in the day”, or “gosh I wish there were just a few more hours in the day”. The fact is, time is finite. Or…where did the time go. We know what we have in time.
So…where the “opportunity and possibilities” reside is in how we make use of finite time.
I recall working with a trainer, Kirsten Gallagher many years ago. Her challenge to me at a session was when I was going to plan to workout. I quickly had a lot of excuses about the rush hour traffic, time required to get to the office, late returns from the office and just not enough time. When I said that I’d head to the office around 7am, she was quick to advise that a lot of gyms actually open at 530! So…it wasn’t like she was creating more time for me. She was just giving me advice on how I could be making better use of my time.
If you actually look at your day and assess how you are making use of finite time you might be surprised at what things you might change in your day.
Some suggestions might include planning ahead to lay out your tasks, determining when to look at email, turning off the annoying “beeps” when an email or text is coming in, setting time aside to return phone calls, planning time to read or catch up on that article that you’ve moved into a “reading file”. Are there some “daily chores” that you haven’t really put in a calendar and they’ve turned into daily distractions? What are those tasks that you keep putting off because they are important but not urgent? Are those “episodes” productive or distracting? Making use of finite time starts with a plan.
If time is finite, then how you put that time to use will determine what you succeed at in your day — however number of hours you decide to be “in action”. How you are making use of finite time will determine how accomplished you are at the end of that hour, day, week, month, quarter and/or year.
Time is finite. Our challenge is how we can do a better job at making use of finite time.
Cheers to a new year just around the corner— 365 days of opportunity and possibility await you.
