We all lead pretty busy lives. These are further complicated by all the “essential” time-wasters. We have so much we want to do, but so little time to do these things. Life is, essentially, a to-do list that we need to prioritize. We need to identify the things that make little or no contribution to our success and well-being.
I recently heard Rory Vaden (author of Procrastinate on Purpose) make a convincing argument for procrastinating (http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/How-To-Multiply-Your-Time-Rory). I believe he called it “productive procrastination. He built off of Stephen Covey’s two-dimensional time-management grid (importance x urgency), adding a third dimension (significance). Beyond prioritizing to for efficiency, he suggests we prioritize according to how long something matters. This is not unlike the idea of “opportunity cost”—everything we do will be done at the expense of something that is left undone.
In managing ourselves, we need to always consider the cost-benefit ratio of our decisions. Brendon Burchard (The Charged Life podcast) pointed out that the person who watches four hours of television a day (currently, the national average!) spends roughly 13 years of his or her life watching television!! Surely, we can make better use of our time.
So, what do you want to do with the time you have? Certain things are a necessity—e.g., sleep. (Arnold Schwarzenegger says: “if you are sleeping more than 6 hours, sleep faster.”—Six to eight hours is, probably, ideal.) Some things should not be rushed—e.g., meals (particularly dinner). Eating is best done slowly, and I am a great proponent of family dinner together at the dinner table. Indeed, meals should, as often as is possible, be social events. Then, there are the things that we can’t change—e.g., the time spent commuting or at work. Nonetheless, there is a substantial amount of time spent doing things that run the gamut of significance—from family to computer apps.
We need to plan our day with the idea of significance in mind. The significance of an event trumps importance and urgency. It accounts for not only what is important and urgent for us, but also for what is important and urgent for the other parties involved. In some cases, something that is seemingly unimportant to us of maybe important but not urgent is extremely important and urgent to another and is, thus, highly significant to us. An example is certainly the time spent with our children and partners. As much as we can be “more productive” if you didn’t have to take time away from work to attend a performance at our child’s school, the impact of being there for the child is immeasurable. The opportunities are abundant and easily overlooked, but they are always time well spent.
It is of great importance to me to start my day prayerfully and considerate of my need to be “well-centered”. Waking up a half-hour earlier permits me to consider my day and establish goals in the spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, and social dimensions. Important—but rarely done well—are my efforts to approach each of these with specific goals. I need to plan time for prayerful reflection and meditation, for exercise, for purposeful reading and learning, and for family and friends (note time spent on these feeds my emotional well-being, so there is no real need for scheduling time specific to my emotional dimension). The ease with which I am able to make time for these dimensions s always indicative of the extent to which these are “centered”. For me: am I making time for prayer, bible study, meditation, etc.? Am I making time to exercise such as is consistent with my goals? Am I reading and appropriate amount? Am I setting aside time for each member of my family? Etc.
What garbage fills our day? Are we spending too much time in activities that drain us physically and emotionally? Are we spending too much time with the wrong people? Are we spending too much time doing “unproductive” things? If we are, take out the garbage. Eliminate the activities that would fall in the insignificant quadrant. Emphasize those things with the highest significance. Count the cost for the choices you have for using your time.
What is most important to you? What is the cost of prioritizing these things?
In the days and weeks to come, I plan to add to this post with regards to exercise. As well, I will share more of how this relates to me with regards to family, as well as the other dimension in addition to social well-centeredness. Until then, use your television time and time on social media wisely and purposefully.
Carpe momento!