How You Spend Your Time Matters
“Keeping busy?” It’s one of those questions that is asked at nearly every networking meeting, Zoom call, and from one business person to another.
We feel like the answer must always certainly be, “Yes!” followed by a long list of how we’re busy, or why our life is busier than ever.
Are You Wearing “Busy” Like a Badge of Honor?
Busy implies that business is doing well and that things are going smoothly, right? Yet so often I hear exactly the opposite. People are busy doing the wrong thing. Far more important than simply being busy, is to focus on how you are spending your time.
How you spend your time matters.
There is a huge difference between simply doing, and doing the right things. But how can you know whether your time is being spent well?
It begins with knowing your goals. What direction do you WANT to go?
Pause for a moment and ask yourself if you are spending your time doing what you want. I know not every hour of every day can be filled with doing things that are completely thrilling and fun, but I would venture to say that a whole lot more of it can be enjoyable than we are allowing ourselves to experience.
So are you spending your time doing what you want? Are the things you’re doing going to get you in the direction you want to be going? Or do you spend most of your day loathing the tasks at hand and allowing your thoughts to spiral out of control? Each day you do, do, do, yet you don't feel any closer to achieving your goals.
There are all sorts of time-tracking tools that can help you to get actual data on how you spend your time. I highly recommend documenting it for a week or two and seeing just how much time is spent doing what you love vs. what you don’t. When you get a clear picture as to how you are spending your time, you can look at what is on that list and take a really hard look at: what you actually need to be doing, what you can delegate to someone else to do, and what you don’t need to be doing at all!
It’s like a much-needed Spring Cleaning and refresh for your calendar! Marie Kondo would be proud.
Create Space
Another important thing to look at when considering how you spend your time is whether or not there is any SPACE in your day.
Are you rushing from thing to thing without any time for pause?
When you mindfully and intentionally look at your time, you can also recognize places where you can in fact block out space to simply BE and not DO. I know that sounds terrifying, like a ball is going to drop, or something important is not going to get done, but I assure you that when you do this, time and time again you will see it is far more of a gift than getting one more thing done on your never-ending to do list.
Boundaries
Our time is the most precious gift we have. It holds weight and is valuable beyond what money can buy, and it is a resource we can never get back.
I want to encourage you to protect your time like your life depends on it. Because it does.
When you begin to look at your life through the lens of the question, “Do I NEED to be doing this?” your world will start to open up. You will see your time in a whole new way!
Start to ask yourself if your actions, thoughts, ideas, and decisions move you towards your goals. And if they don’t, remove them from your calendar, your schedule, your life, and replace them with a more intentional choice, or better yet, SPACE.
Learning to create a life that is spent focusing on the right things is a process of trusting. It’s a process of growth, letting go, and giving up some of this need to achieve constantly.
And if you’re like me, once you start getting into the practice of spending your time on what matters most to you, you won’t go back!
Did this resonate with you? Let me know in the comments!