Every day we each have a decision to make, how to spend the 24 hours in our day. Answering that differs from person to person.
Where does the time go!?
The notion of not having enough time is simply an excuse we tell ourselves to avoid the uneasy truth: It simply wasn't a priority. It wasn't as high of a priority, fun, distracting, profitable or urgent enough to make it to the top of the to-do list. Your priorities dictate your schedule. If you're unhappy with how your schedule looks, I would reorder your priorities.
This of course need not apply to people who actually have no extra time like the single parent working two jobs to support their family and spend what little free time with them.
Time is a finite commodity. People are constantly deciding what appointments to honor, how much time to dedicate to TV shows, and to go or not to go to the gym. The solution won't be solved by giving someone more time (impossible) but by creating a greater sense of urgency.
Every minute needs to count. Well they need to count if you feel like you weren't able to do everything you wanted to do. Need to take a break? Hang out at the bar? Play on the softball team? There's absolutely nothing wrong with those things, so long as you're not complaining about not being unable to accomplish other goals in your life.
Those activites are the types of things that need to be sacrificed in order to get other things done when time is tight. And speaking on the topic of sacrifices, how about we talk about money, specifically your job.
The job you do takes up the majority of your day. Combine that with the 8 hours of sleep you should be getting and we're left with 8 hours a day, 56 hours per week. 56 miscellaneous hours a week for family time and your other goals is more than enough, so what exactly isn't getting done? Sometimes it's a matter of evaluating your happiness versus money.
Here's a real example:
John (not really his name but lets just use John) LOVES basketball. Any free time John has he's playing pick up basketball at the park and plays in two leagues during the week. John also works 40+ hours at an office job he greatly dislikes.
He would always say if he could leave his job and coach basketball while working a part time job he thinks he could be much happier. Unlike the other regulars at this park who told him he'd be dumb to leave a $60K/year job for $40k/year, I asked him would he realisticly be able to live off that? John said he'd have to get rid of his BMW and scale back in a few places but yes he could. I went a different route and said to him, your happiness is worth more than $60k/year and a BMW combined. I told him to be smart, but ultimately to follow what would truly make him happy.
I recently saw John and asked him how things were going. He's made a business out of coaching youth basketball skills and is making a little less than he did at his job (49k/year) but he's immensely happier with his life.
What do you want to do every single day?
If you could do one thing for 12, 15, 18 hours a day and truly be happy, what would it be?
One day you will wake up and it's going to be your last day on this planet. Will you look back happy with the life you lived? Or one mired with regret.
I look back on who I was one year ago and am proud of how far I've come but also ashamed that I had allowed myself to get that low. I borrowed money to make rent. I maxed out multiple credit cards to live. And I could easily blame my business not working or the economy but in reality I simply was not using my time effectively. I wasn't working hard enough. I wasn't making the necessary sacrifices to succeed. I was simply NOT HUSTLING, not prioritizing the things I didn't want to do but needed to do.
I now live my life according to this quote:
“Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you.”- Mark Cuban
Now get back to work.