Modern Life: It's not About Finding Time, It's About MAKING Time!

I have often written about time in our day and age, and how it feels like we have less and less of it... or — at least — it seems like we need to cram a lot more "stuff" into the same amount of time as we had before.

Whereas I have never been what I would consider a "high energy" type person — all amped up and always on the go, go, go — I have typically been quite good at systematically and methodically grinding it out when I need to.

As I have pointed out before, my "talent" is more about perseverance than it's about fits of creative brilliance.

That said, fact remains that I often feel like I simply don't have "enough time" to get everything done I feel like I should be able to get done.

In case you hadn't noticed, lately I have been slacking off on my blogging. My "excuse" is that I simply don't have time... but is that really true?

As often as not, "having time" is sort of a fictional statement. More likely, we're just not managing our time all that well. Or we are feeling overwhelmed by everything on our to-do list so we spent rather too much time feeling immobilized.

To be honest, when I was a kid and a young person, I had no idea I would be dedicating as much of my life to working for a living as I actually do. I suppose that's a fair enough conclusion to draw, based on the adults around me I was watching... and how their 35-40 hour work weeks (1970s) were generally adequate for them to get by in life.

No such luck now.

I'm self-employed, of course... but I still end up working something on the order of 60-70 hours in a typical week, and that's just to scrape by.

Not impressive, I know...

The USA has a lot of what you might call "working poor" people — those who work endlessly, and yet still hover on the precipice of poverty and even homelessness.

People who actually live in their cars or SUVs used to be the domain of lowly hourly workers; store clerks and fast food cooks... but we're increasingly seeing professional people like accountants and doctors living in their vans, because even with their high salaries, they can't afford both their educational loan payments and rent on a place to live.

But getting back to something like my blogging, I realized it's also about making time, and making it important to do certain things in your life.

I may not "have" time to blog, but somehow I can make time for it.

Sometimes, what I am not so good at is knowing how long it really takes to do something.

I contemplate something like writing a blog post (or finishing some project) and I get this idea in my head that I need to set aside two hours or something in order to get it done properly.

But do I really?

Indeed, writing an "article" and checking it for spelling, grammar and good flow, and then finding and adding images does take a fair amount of time. But it only takes two hours if I'm not sure what I want to write about, and I find myself "waffling" aimlessly, moving words and sentences around... without really making much progress.

One of the ways I often make time for myself is by only starting in on something when I am in a frame of mind to really focus on it. Maybe that's a bit of a luxury many people don't have... but I must take advantage of the fact that I do have that luxury.

There are a myriad things on my daily to-do list... and the onus is on me to pick those things I am most likely to be able to really apply myself to.

Because I can't hope to "find" more time anywhere... I have to make it!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

How about you? Are you pretty good at making time for the things that matter MOST in your life? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2025.03.02 16:47 PST
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