The Trouble Is You Think You Have Time

Yes, we all think we have time to get things done, but we always do the same thing: we procrastinate. We believe that we can do it at the last minute. Then, problems hit. All of us have dealt with this: many, many nights of trying to finish that article or design that site or copywrite that brochure or do whatever we need to do.

“But I do have time, I can get things done”. Wrong. You have no time unless you plan how to use it wisely. We keep on thinking like this, leading us to a no-end point. It is always the same. We procrastinate, we believe that we have time and we panic when we reach the deadline and have nothing done. Why? Why don’t we just finish it before it needs to be done? It is just a matter of habits.

Without a change, we are sentenced to live a life where the only time when you are calm is…never. A life with supercharged schedules, running every day. Nights without sleeping, days without rest. A life without a plan is like a ship adrift. We’ll never know our next step.

Why? Because we think we can make it, but in the middle of the day we lose direction and the whole world is against us. We must do things we don’t want to do. Time seems to run, and we are walking behind. No way to win.

We must understand that we have a limited time slot, so we must learn to manage it in order to get the most of it.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a perfect schedule and get things done at the right time? Of course! It would be a perfect world. But what happens? Why can’t we get things done? Because we need to change our mind. We must acquire the correct habit, if not, we are heading to nowhere.

Once we learn to manage our time, it changes our lives. We can take care of the most important things, we do not procrastinate, we have time to spend with our family, we can rest, we enjoy every moment. We do not run anymore. We can think, we can enjoy, we can plan, we can sleep again.

When we learn to handle our time we enjoy every moment as a new one. There is something that the vast majority of us never appreciate. The present moment, the now. This moment. This is due to our bad habit of thinking that we have time, so we waste it. But if we could only take a moment to enjoy the present, we’ll find numerous “invisible” things we had never seen before.

Let’s pretend for a while that you have only 48hs, no more. Would you still procrastinate and waste your time or you would rather find the way to experience every minute? I hope you would try to get the most of every minute. So you would plan what to do, and you would discard the nonsense topics in order to focus on the right direction. That’s the way to do it.

Focus, plan, discipline.

You have to be task-oriented, and change how you think about getting things done. You have to stop creating to-do lists and make task lists or objective lists instead.

Let me explain it: When you change your how you think to accept that you must finish a task, you’ll train yourself to get a new and healthy habit. A to-do list means nothing, just a way to write what you should remember; but a task list or objective list forces you to start a task and finish it. Nice, right?

Someone told me once “You do not need more time, you need to do the right thing at the exact moment. Once you learn to focus and to plan your day, you’ll gain free times”. And that’s the way to do it.

Should you give it a try? Do you dare to change your mind and improve your life?

Featured photo credit: Chris Florence – CC BY 2.0 License via flickr.com

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