“Making” Time for Things You Want to Do
It’s like time travel while riding a unicorn
The problem with trying to make time for everything that feels important — or just for enough of what feels important — is that you definitely never will. The reason isn’t that you haven’t yet discovered the right time management tricks or supplied sufficient effort, or that you need to start getting up earlier, or that you’re generally useless. It’s that the underlying assumption is unwarranted: there’s no reason to believe you’ll ever feel ‘on top of things,’ or make time for everything that matters, simply by getting more done.
― Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks
When I first read Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks, I was surprised at how much of what he was saying actually clicked for me, even though I had never thought of time in this way. It was as though I always knew it to be this way, yet had never had it articulated in this manner.
The quote above encapsulates our relationship with time. We want to “make” time to do the things we want to do. That make us happy. That are important to us. But it’s this very way of thinking that has us failing before we even begin.
“Making” time
You cannot make time. It is a non-renewable resource. It simply exists. You cannot create any more of it. You have your allotted quota and no more. Nobody knows what their allocation is. So, time is precious and should be used wisely. And this is where a lot of the confusion comes to the surface — making time vs using time.
The picture at the top of this article is apt if somewhat misleading. Once the sand runs out, it’s over. However, unlike the hourglass, we do not have the luxury of turning it over and starting again. That is not how time works. It is a finite resource.
The challenge
You do not have to search for long to come across a tool, a system, a process that claims to help you manage your time better so that you can “get more done”. Unfortunately for most, this is where they stay. The revolving door of apps and advice that is well-intentioned but highly misleading and, for some that cannot see past it, counterproductive, where they end up doing less with the time they have.
Don’t look for a solution. Time is not a problem to solve. You cannot get the better of it. You cannot win this battle. Accept it. Embrace it. And look to use time to your advantage. Be smarter than the majority. Only then will you relieve some of the pressures you feel.
In the beginning
I’m a boomer. I know what it’s like to live in a time before the information of the world was available at our fingertips, and the feeling that we need to always be online and contactable. I’m not saying that was a better time. It was a different time. I graduated from university just before the internet became a thing. I have lived the before and after of this information age. The desire to “get more done” is not new.
In the 50’s and 60’s, companies were all about efficiencies. Trying to get the production lines to do more in the same amount of time. The only controllable is quality (how we choose to use it), as the quantity of time we have is fixed. I would be confident in saying that by doing more, the quality of the widget may have suffered. Like we suffer when we try to “get more done”.
Then there was the book
David Allen’s book Getting This Done was written in 2001, as the Internet was starting to boom. He popularised the GTD methodology, adopted by millions worldwide in an effort to be more productive and “get things done”. However, to this day, a simple search will bring up thousands of results where people have failed in the endeavour. Why? They are focusing on the wrong thing.
I’m an information junkie. I go to meetings :-) But, seriously, our issues with time stem from the information that is now available to us, and our nature to want to consume more. Pre-internet, we had information fed to us via newspapers, magazines and the TV news programs. Today, it comes to us from…everywhere! No wonder we are all struggling with time.
Ok, I know the problem. How do we fix it?
I won’t pretend to have the solution to this. Or, that there even is a solution to be had. However, there is an alternative way to look at it, which, for me, removes the pressure. It requires a change in how you think about it and how you frame it. Instead of trying to “make” time, start “using” it. Don’t try to get more done. Just do, and more may get done. Or, it may not. But, no pressure.
We do not have an issue with the lack of time available to us. We have an issue with what we choose to do with that time. And this issue will persist if we keep thinking that time is something we can control.
So, don’t try and make time for things that need doing. Just Do It. Nike put it succinctly and is synonymous with this catchphrase.
In a follow-up article, I will focus on a method of using time that is simple, very well known, yet many still struggle to use it properly. Maybe it’ll help. Maybe it won’t. But I’ll tell you about it anyway.
