Use your time wisely…
….but maybe not in the way you think.
tl;dr — optimize to be a better you rather than just a more productive you.
As you read this know that I have started, stopped, written, deleted, and rewrote this blog post at least a half dozen times. I wanted to make a witty and clever blog about a realization I had the other day…but I probably should just give it to you straight.
Longer version:
About a week ago someone gave me — and a room full of people — some casual advice:
“Use your time wisely to be a better person.” — Josh
He said it in a very matter of fact way. No pause, no comma needed just — BOOM — advice administered like it was the oldest piece of advice in the book.
The truth was that even though I had heard the beginning part many times in career development books, self help articles, motivational speeches, relationship advice and even religious teachings the last part really changed how I saw the success of executing this statement.
“Use your time wisely to be a better person.” — Josh
With the small addition of ‘…to be a better person’ using my time wisely suddenly didn’t mean getting the most done in my day. Instead, success meant more of my day spent working towards being a better me…than not working towards being a better me. I know this may be small -or insignificant- to many people but for me it reflected a very different evaluation of my day. Rather than wondering
“I taking the dog for a walk the most productive thing I could be doing?”
and probably thinking
“No, I could be heading into work earlier/making dinner/ cleaning the house/whatever.”
I get to ask
“Is taking the dog for a walk working towards being a better me?”
In this case, yes, because I want to be the best mom and companion to my pup as possible…and he likes walks. Similarly, does hitting the snooze button make me a better me? Not really. Even waking up just 15 minutes earlier to start my day with some yoga puts my body and mind in a better space.
This small change had an enormous impact on my day-to-day priorities as well as longer term goals. I realized that:
- I had too many things I was trying to shove into my weekly schedule. This was impacting the quality of the events I was doing, making it harder to be a good partner to my bf and wearing on me to where I was more on edge than usual with co-workers and friends.
- I needed to focus my training goals a little tighter. Training ALL the things wasn’t making me a better me…it was making me a more scattered me and significantly reducing the progress I was seeing in any one of those areas.
- I needed to prioritize more ‘me’ time/alone time/relaxing in order to recharge. I can not ‘go go go’ all day everyday without significant side effects. This means saying no to certain social events. Findings days and times that I keep for myself and doing relaxed activities. These are just as important for me as being productive.
So there you have it. Use your time wisely to be a better you…which doesn’t always mean being a more productive you. Be smart and think about it. Don’t use it as an excuse to be lazy, but instead as a more balancing guide than “DO ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME!”
