We have all said this, right?
We say “I don’t have time”, “I’m too busy”, or blame somebody else. Now, let’s get real. When we don’t want to feel guilty about skipping something, this is what we do.
- If we don’t have enough time to clean the house, it’s easier to accept living in a bit of a mess.
- Same for time to work out, it’s easier for us to be okay with being a bit breathless after a flight of stairs.
- Not enough time to prepare healthy meals, it’s easier to accept our next unhealthy meal through a Maccies drive-thru.
- No time to apply for new jobs or make new connections; it’s easier to accept staying in a dead-end job.
So, from now on – you aren’t allowed to use those words. Never again will you utter “I don’t have time” – let me tell you why.
So how is it that we have the most intelligent calendars, reminders, productivity apps and we still always feel behind, feel out of control or “too busy”?
Now while swapping “I don’t have time” for “It’s not my priority” may sound small or too simple. Put it into practice. It is such a powerful mindset shifter. Just watch how quickly a perspective can shift when looking at life’s challenges in this new way:
- “Well, I’d love to work out; I just don’t have time” becomes “Exercising isn’t a priority for me.”
- “Oh, I’d love to eat healthier, but I really don’t have time to cook” becomes “Eating healthy isn’t a priority.”
- “I just don’t have time to travel” becomes “Traveling and seeing the world isn’t a priority.“
All of a sudden, the excuse of time becomes such a feeble argument. Oh, shoot!
Now, I can almost hear you saying – “James, these things absolutely are my priority, but there aren’t enough hours in a day!” Frankly, it is not what we say is a priority; what we actually do is a priority.
Sorry about that.
I have been there. We all have. And I still fall into this trap. “I adore reading; I just don’t have time for it.” In reality, I just put everything else in front of reading: I will watch an unhealthy amount of TV, I will stay up late on the net, and everything else. Before you know it is 2am and you’re down a facebook stalking, youtube or tiktok hole…
Once we realise how we aren’t always prioritising our lives, the best way forward is to objectively analyse our life (see our super simple activity below).
This is important because how you choose to spend your time defines your priorities.
Activity
What now?
Whether how you prioritise suddenly dawned on you as you read, or you had an ‘aha moment’ with our 168-hour time buster, we have to take care to ensure that our activity reflects our real priorities. When we lose the excuses, cut the bull shit and focus on prioritising, suddenly things can fall into place.
Whether you want to achieve in life, at work or in education, you have to put your activity where your mouth and mind are. And if you’d like a no-commitments-chat about how I could support you, I’d love that.
Explore further
Useful references
- “I lie to myself that i have freedom in my own schedule” | Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (acm.org)
- What makes us busy? Predictors of perceived busyness across the adult lifespan: The Journal of General Psychology: Vol 146, No 2 (tandfonline.com)
- The Martin and Park Environmental Demands (MPED) Questionnaire: Psychometric properties of a brief instrument to measure self-reported environmental demands (researchgate.net)
- Daily Memory Lapses in Adults: Characterization and Influence on Affect (researchgate.net)
