Take Care of the Minutes and the Years Take Care of Themselves

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, came the busyness pandemic.  We all knew (and know) that there’s only so much time, so we rushed here and there filling our schedules (or allowing them to be filled) to fit in as much as possible.  Busy became a status symbol, a legitimate answer to “How are you?”, a signal of worth and meaning.  Doing anything trumped doing nothing. And so passed the minutes, hours, days, months and years.  WHOOOOSH.

Now, having been forced to look at and re-evaluate our ways of living and working after two years of lockdowns, how can we feel most satisfied about how we spend our time? We recommend trying the following steps: 

1. Work out your priorities, and prioritise them

Challenge yourself to really think about what matters to you and allocate your time accordingly.  If you feel unsure about where your priorities lie, a useful exercise to gain clarity is to consult “Future You”.  Take a few moments to project yourself forward in time and imagine yourself looking back at your current self. 

• What is Future You pleased you focussed your attention on now? 

• What does Future You wish you had done less of? 

• Notice what Future You imagines you doing, where you are doing it, who else is there, and how you feel about how you spent your time. 

Take note and use these reflections to identify what will most enrich your life. 

2. Let go of judgement (from others and yourself)

An investment of your time is an investment of yourself. So spending time on something that’s worthwhile to you is worthwhile.  It won’t necessarily be the same as what’s important to others, and that’s fine.  As Bertrand Russell wrote, “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”.  If you’re not enjoying it, ask yourself why you’re doing it. 

3. Your time is your own, so own it

It’s a fact of life that we don’t have control over all of our time and will all have to take time to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do.  However, we do have control over our attitude and approach to what we are doing.  If you have to spend time doing something that you’d rather not, you can dramatically improve your experience by deciding to engage with and focus  on the task in hand. 

4. Set boundaries

Protect the activities that are important to you.  Tell other people about them and explain why they matter.  Reciprocate by respecting others’ time.  If you’re a leader or manager, encourage your team members to set non-negotiables (e.g. leaving work early to collect children from school, or taking time out in the day to go for a walk or go to the gym). 

5. Start small

Try to resist going from 0-60. Expect set-backs, review and adjust.