Does the phrase "I'd love to, but I don't have time" sound familiar? Whether we say it ourselves or hear it from family, friends or colleagues, it seems to pop up everywhere. I notice it comes up often in relation to topics such as exercise, volunteering or facing a new personal or professional project. It's true that we are bombarded with requests in an ever-increasing number of ways, and this may help to explain this phenomenon. Thirty or forty years ago (yes, I'm from that era), to contact someone, besides meeting them on the street or at home, we could call a landline number and hope they were there, write a letter or, by other means, use one of the television channels (there were two), radio or the press. And that was it. After adding extraordinary productivity tools such as mobile phones, text messages, email and the internet, do we all have more time available? And after a thousand social networks, smartphones, tablets, WhatsApp, YouTube and Netflix? Productivity tools have increased, it is true, but with them, the number of requests we are exposed to and to which we devote our attention has increased exponentially. This tires us and, worse, makes us feel that we have lost our most valuable resource, because it is irreplaceable: time. If we didn't have time available a few years ago, how can we fit in hours of Facebook or videos? How can we tolerate instant messaging interruptions every minute? Why do we have a phone ready to ring 24 hours a day? The answer seems obvious: we all have exactly the same 1,440 minutes in a day, and if we now fit in spaces that did not exist before, then in the past we did have the same amount of time available (and we did not know it). If this is the case, and because we will inevitably continue to fit in new apps or distractions, it follows that we now also have time available (and we do not know it). If there are people who achieve better results than me with those same 1,440 minutes – whether physically, professionally or spiritually – it may be because they manage their time better than I do. What can I learn from them? Can I model them in some way? Perhaps the feeling that time is an endless drain is due to managing blocks of minutes that do not come from a conscious definition of priorities. We often let the easiest option be the decision: exercise or television? Volunteering or Facebook? I haven't found any magic solutions for doing the important tasks and not the ones that get in the way, just a few practices that seem to work for me and that I strive to implement gradually, in small steps. Some of them are:
- Start small - if I don't have time to exercise, I can start with just one push-up when I wake up. Or 10. I definitely have about 30 seconds, so I can start there. As I incorporate this habit, I can add another push-up to my routine. And starting the day with a goal already accomplished is powerful.
- Reduce distractions - I can choose one day a week without social media, television, or both. Suddenly I've created a few hours. What do I do with them? I decide in advance whether I'm going to spend them reading, learning or meditating.
- Reduce interruptions - interrupting work is the best way to ensure it takes longer. If I replace checking my email every 2 minutes with 3 or 4 times a day, I'm guaranteed to be more productive. If I cut out all other notifications, the gain will be exponential.
I know I will never have time for everything I want to do, but I strive for the day when, instead of saying "I'd love to, but I don't have time," I will automatically say "it's not one of my priorities in life, so I won't do it" or "yes, I will." That's it.
