Things I’m Avoiding Doing December Challenge Day Twenty Seven – Time is Not a Variable
One of the most helpful things I’ve come to see about time and productivity management is that when it seems like we don’t have enough time to get stuff done, we’re missing the point.
Putting aside for the moment that there’s no such thing as time in nature (and you can’t put it in a wheelbarrow, which suggests it’s made of thought), we all get the same 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week, 730ish hours in a month, and 8,760 hours in a year. (That’s 525,600 minutes for fans of the musical Rent.)
So while how busy we feel is largely a function of our thinking, how full or spacious our calendar is 0% to do with time and 100% to do with what we try to squeeze into it.
I first started seeing this on my nightly dog walks, where I realized to my amusement and dismay that I was trying to sort out global warming, feeding hungry children, the third-quarter numbers for my business, and my kids love lives in a chunk of time that was just about perfect for my dogs to walk, pee, and poop.
When I abandoned my mental to-do list and got back to the present moment, I not only started enjoying the walk, I found a couple of ideas floating into my head that were actually actionable when the time came to actually action them.
How is this relevant to you and our shared quest to get the things we’ve been avoiding doing done?
Chances are that when you look at (and especially when you think about) your list, it feels a bit overwhelming. You start doing background “time math”, calculating how long each thing on your list is going to take and contextualizing it in your mental calendar of other pressing appointments and activities.
But if you get clear that you never have to complete your list – just take the next action – you’ll find the feeling of overwhelm mysteriously disappearing. And the more you just show up in the moment and do what there is to be done, the more of a sense of ease and flow you’ll begin to experience not only with your list, but with your life in general.
Have fun, learn heaps, and happy exploring!
