I’m Sorry if I Wasted Your Time
It may be time that we re-adjust our priorities.
I received a Facebook message last week from a good friend of mine. He said, “This seems like they channeled you when making this.” He then provided a link to Jay Shetty’s video entitled “Before You Waste Time”. I hope you’ll take a few minutes and watch it; I guarantee you won’t feel like you wasted your time.
The video reminded me so clearly of why 3AT exists: to push one another to be the best version of ourselves, and to take weekly actionable steps in the areas of relationship building, personal development, and personal finance in order to live a better life than we would have otherwise.
Time is a finite resource. There are 86,400 seconds in one day, and we’ll never know how many more days we have left. This was the most impactful part of Jay’s video for me…
To realize the value of 1 year, ask a student who failed a grade/class.
To realize the value of 1 month, ask a mother who lost their child in the final month.
To realize the value of 1 week, ask the editor of an online newspaper.
To realize the value of 1 hour, ask the couple in a long distance relationship.
To realize the value of 1 minute, ask the person who just missed a bus or train or plane.
To realize the value of 1 second, ask the person who just missed an accident.
To realize the value of 1 millisecond, ask the person who just came in 2nd at the Olympics.
How often do we blame others for wasting our time? The woman writing a check in the grocery store checkout line, the boss who gives us an impossible due date on a task, the child who is taking entirely too long to tie their shoes… We feel like time has been stolen from us.
BUT, let’s get real: we are our own worst time stealers. We give ourselves permission to waste time all too often. The crappy book we feel like we HAVE to finish because we bought it or have three hours vested in it; watching the fourth consecutive episode during a Netflix binge session; losing 20 minutes scrolling on Facebook/Instagram; hitting snooze for the third time nearly every morning… We are our own worst enemy.
That being said, there are three versions of ourselves: Past us, Present us, and Future us. You should only care about the last two because there is nothing we can do to “fix” Past us, and there is no value in blaming that version of ourselves incessantly. All we can control is Present us and Future us. Make the time adjustments necessary to dream about Future us, so that Present us can implement consistent habits to make Future us a reality. Future us strives for more, hungers for knowledge, and KNOWS we have more to give to the world. Be daring.
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs, and comes short again and again;
because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but
who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause,
who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and
who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while…
Daring Greatly
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
know neither victory nor defeat.
~ President Theodore Roosevelt
We owe this to our future selves, to our families, and to the world. Make the adjustment. Afterall, it is “just” time.
One Comment
Josh Evilsizor
Best comprehensive time management book I’ve read so far has been the 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The productivity habits of 7 billion hours, 13 olympic athletes, 29 straight a students, and 239 entrepreneur by Kevin Kruse.
The 15 Secrets (parantheicals are addn’l notes or personal comments):
Time is your most valuable and scarcest resource
(1,440 minutes in the day, what’s the priority?)
Identify your Most Important Task (MIT) and work on it each day before doing anything else.
Calendar everything
Work from your calendar, not a to-do list
(or both – GQs)
Procrastination can be overcome when you figure out how to beat your future self, who cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
Accept the fact that there will always be more to do and more that can be done.
(Schedule to leave work at 5 p.m.)
Always carry a notebook.
(Or a note app – trusted system.)
Email is a great way for other people to put their priorities into your life; control your inbox.
Schedule and attend meetings as a last resort, when all other forms of communication won’t work.
Say no to everything that doesn’t support your immediate goals.
(“When you say yes to something you’re saying no to something else.”)
80% of outcomes are generated by 20% of activities
(Pareto principle)
Focus your time only on things that utilize your unique strengths and passions.
Batch your work with recurring themes for different days of the week.
If a task can be completed in less than 5 minutes, do it immediately.
Invest the first 60 minutes of each day in ritual that strengthen your mind, body, and spirit.
Productivity is about energy and focus, not time.