“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.” -Anthony G. Oettinger

 

If you think about it, saying we’re “killing time” while doing a certain activity is ironic. Ironic because, it’s not us that’s killing time, but time that’s killing us. It’s a harsh truth that time is something we never get back, which is why our time is one of our most valuable assets. If you’re not where you want to be in your life, and you constantly feel you don’t have enough time, I assure you, you have plenty. We all have the same 24 hours 7 days a week to do with what we choose. How we choose to spend our time though, makes all the difference.

If you find yourself making the excuse “I don’t have enough time,” I challenge you to think deeper about that. Is it true that you don’t have enough time? Or, are you allocating the time you do have towards activities that don’t serve you? My guess is that it’s the latter, so I urge you to examine where your time is spent.

Where do you find yourself wasting valuable minutes, hours, weeks of your life over time? Is it in front of the television? Scrolling through social media? Washing your pet fish (hint: they’re already being washed)? Regardless of where your time is being spent, ask yourself,

“Is this use of my time moving me closer to my goals, or further?”

We’re always moving upwards on the success curve, or downwards on the failure curve. We all make poor use of our time at times. We’re human, it happens. But how often that happens matters greatly, especially if you are not happy with how things are going currently in your life.

 

 

Where can you take YOUR time back?

We all waste time on silly things at one point or another. But we can make this wasted time occur less frequently and make these time gaps more productive. Want to go to the gym but feel you don’t have time? Cut down on the 20-30 minutes you spend on social media and you’ll have enough for a quick workout. Want to learn to play the guitar but don’t know how you’ll fit it into your busy schedule? Cut out the hour of TV after work each night and you’ll have plenty of time to start practicing.

This makes sense, right? If we’re spending large portions of our day on useless activities, then cutting down on these activities frees up our time for activities that benefit our life more. Although this is important, what’s sometimes missed is the difference between being busy, and being productive. While it’s great to be busy and get a lot of stuff done in a day, what that stuff is matters.

Let’s say for example your goal is to finish a blue print for work. You feel great at the end of the day because you replied to 15 emails, reorganized your desk, helped your coworker with a problem, and brought home dinner for the family. Those things in the moment may have been good to do, but did they move you closer to finishing the blueprint? Nope. You were busy, of that there is no doubt. Busy, but not productive.

 

 

Being productive and making good use of our time comes down to setting the right priorities. There are two helpful frameworks/concepts that I like to use to set the proper priorities for the day, which are: prioritize and execute, and The One Thing.

 

Prioritize and Execute

In the book Extreme Ownership, Leif and Jocko teach the concept of Prioritize and Execute. It’s a simple but powerful concept. You take stock of the current situation and what your priority is in that moment, devise a plan for how to act on that priority, and then execute your plan. This is used moment to moment as needed to create awareness of the most important tasks we need to be working on.

 

The One Thing

Another powerful prioritizing concept comes from Gary Keller’s book, The One Thing. In Mr. Keller’s book, he teaches something he calls the focusing question that we can use to set our priorities.

We ask ourselves, “What’s the ONE THING I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”

It’s a question that is demanding a clear answer. Your “one thing” that you choose, if chosen correctly, will help cut down on the clutter. Starting with one thing is a simple, but powerful concept.

I’ll warn you though, don’t gloss over this. You may be thinking that it’s too tough to boil down what you need to do to only one thing. That there are so many moving pieces to finish your project at work, get to your fat loss goal, etc., You couldn’t possibly do only one thing because there are so many things to do. Take heed from the old Russian proverb though which says,

“If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.”

It all starts with one thing and it doesn’t stop there. You start with one thing and stay with it through completion. That one thing gets you to your next one thing, which gets you to your next one thing. This goes for all areas of your life too.

 

Your one thing…

What’s your one thing for fitness? What’s your one thing for nutrition? For your relationships, career, or hobbies?

Have no clue what you’re doing in the gym and feel overwhelmed? Ask yourself the focusing question and go from there. Struggling with starting a big project at work? Pick the simplest, most important thing to start working on and start there.

 

Time is a currency we’re always cashing in without ever getting a refund. Are you putting that cash to good use, or are you tossing it away? Buying things to help make your life better, or worse? We may not be able to kill time, but we can always choose how we spend it. Examine where in your life your time is slipping away wasted, and next ask yourself,

“What’s my one thing right now?

 

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