When I was a little kid, other people set up my schedule and determined how I spent most of my time. I found it easy to handle a lot of things during this period in my life: playing in the school band, playing soccer, singing in an ensemble, and, on top of all of that, keeping up with my schoolwork and a few other things I did every week. However, as I steadily acquired more control over my schedule, I gradually lost a lot of motivation and had few (if any) regular hobbies or interests. Even when I did find things I enjoyed, I couldn’t manage my time nearly as effectively as those who once did it for me, so I didn’t make time for the things I loved doing. It wasn’t until I started learning about effective time management that I was able to do more of what I love and have less filler in my days.
I suppose I got my first glimpse into the world of time management when I stopped watching TV back in 2012 during a fast at my church. When the fast ended, I continued avoiding TV because I had lost interest in it by then. Since I watched a lot of TV, ceasing to watch it freed up a great deal of time that I could spend on other activities, although I think I mostly just switched to other ways to kill time. Still, it showed me that I can reduce filler in order to make time for more meaningful things. It also probably helped me move toward being aware of how much time I spend on different activities and seeing where to make changes to free up more time for my passions.
Time is your most precious resource since you can’t get more of it. You can always find ways to make more money, get more stuff, or consume more content; you can’t recover lost time, and you’re losing time every moment that you’re alive. Additionally, if you don’t manage your time and decide how it’ll be spent, someone else will, and you probably won’t like the decisions they make for you. So if you want to have enough time to pursue your passions and interests, the best thing you can do is learn about effective time management. For that, I highly recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In this book, Stephen Covey shows the different ways that we can spend our time (some are beneficial and others are wasteful) and gives a lot of advice for managing it such that we can remain productive while still having plenty of opportunities to enjoy ourselves, including addressing important matters early on so they don’t become big problems that take up a ton of time. I think this is what really helped me refocus a lot of my priorities and plan out my days so that I can pursue my interests and my self-improvement work and still (usually) get enough sleep. The Art of Manliness also has a few good articles on time management and getting more out of each day. I hope this post has inspired you to put more focus in managing your time so that you can move a bit closer to living your best life. Believe me, it’s worth the effort.