Make Time for the Things that Matter

It’s so easy to let life slip away. How often do you look back on your day or week and struggle to remember what if anything you’ve achieved? Happens to me quite a lot. But in the past it happened more than it does now thanks to actions I’ve taken.

In a former life I was a bachelor in rented accommodation with a modest social life. I frequently had whole evenings and weekends with nothing planned. At the same time I was ambitious. I wanted to write, I wanted to start a blog, I wanted to explore various interests. But with so much time there was always another day and so I would rationalise just watching another DVD tonight. There was always tomorrow.

And then I changed jobs. I went from 36 hours a week to 60. I decided I could handle it, and I did. After all, lots of people work longer hours, some work those hours all their careers. But my vast tracts of free time virtually disappeared. I became frustrated at my lack of time to work on personal projects. It was a very intense job. Factoring in commuting time and the bare essentials of day to day existence such as laundry and food shopping, I had no spare time during the week. And at the weekend I didn’t want to do anything but recover.

I tried to do the things I’d put off in the former life in the short spaces of time available to me. Suddenly they seemed more urgent. But though the spirit was willing, mind and body were wiped. Some progress was made, but little. I resolved that when I finished the job (14 months later) I would observe this lesson and not fall back into my old ways.

I would liken this to the tales you read of people diagnosed with a terminal illness. Suddenly their priorities change, they start doing all the things they meant to do before it’s too late. Clearly that’s an experience on a completely different scale, but the effects can be the same if you resolve to take action. I don’t want to wait to be diagnosed with something terrible before doing the things I meant to. Not having the time to do them at all was enough of a wake up call for me.

Since stumbling out of the fog, and after re-adjusting to daylight and smiles, I’ve proceeded through life with greater urgency. I’ve started a podcast. I’ve closed my moribund blog and started this one. I know exactly what I want to achieve this year and I’ve set aside the time to do it. I’m not perfect. I still relapse. But the guilt is crippling and I make up the time. If I need to I look at my watch of an evening and calculate what I would have been doing at that time in the old job. That gets me off my ass.

What have you been putting off? What do you know in your heart you want to do but when the moment comes you procrastinate instead? I could offer you a list of procrastination busters I’ve read elsewhere. I could spout the standard lines on finding what you love to do and then doing it. But I won’t. Others have done that already. All I’ll say is this: it’s a great feeling to look back on the week and say ‘yes, I achieved all that and it feels great’.

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