Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That! There just isn’t enough time in my day to do everything I need to do. How many of you have made this declaration? As you know, I wear many hats and my schedule is always full and I am on the go. BUSY! BUSY! BUSY! I don’t have a lot of “FREE” time and I do pretty well managing my time. Well, at least that’s what I use to think. Actually, I am rethinking that perspective. Recently, I was speaking to a colleague and he made a comment that he did not want to waste any of his 1440. 1440? I inquired. He promptly replied that there are only 1440 minutes in a day and he refused to spend any of it on wasteful people or things. Hmm. That was an unusual way to talk about time. But he had me curious.
We often refer to time in hours, days, weeks, months or even years but not minutes when managing our day. This was different. I reflected on how I had spent my last 1440. My day started off at 7am with my waking up and praying thanking God for another day or shall I now say, 1440! Yikes 420 or 37% of my 1440 was already gone. The list continued with getting dressed, cooking breakfast, working my 8- hour shift, a doctor’s appointment and my travel commute home. I estimate that was about 840 minutes, over half of my allotted 1440 gone and adding in another 300 minutes of sleep at bedtime. See every moment of my day was maximized, but was it really? I thought I had a fairly productive day and then I tried to focus on where could I have maximized my 1440 even better. I really did not work every minute of my schedule. (Don’t judge me, I know there are times when you take extra coffee breaks or personal calls.) Hmm, Social Media maybe. I thought, I don’t spend that much time. I scroll here and there between calls. However, when I checked my Facebook settings I was shocked to see that I had actually spent 1 hour and 46 minutes on average a day and a whopping 5 hours and 5 minutes at my PEAK. Then I started to think about what could I had done with 5 additional hours in my day. I reflected on the fact that I had not finished (ok started) my bible study lesson. I had not finished the book that I had committed to read before the year started. I still hadn’t updated my budget for this week or called to check in with the girls or even finished the DIY home improvement project I started in my bathroom. Not to mention the many piles of laundry patiently waiting for me to fold and put away. But again, I just didn’t have time to finish. But in fact, I did. If I had chosen to use just 2.5 hours of my wasted 5, I would have been able to attend to many of the tasks that I “didn’t have time” to complete. Then I thought, what if today was my last 1440 had I done everything that I really wanted to do. It was not the countless list of chores that flashed before my eyes but glimpse of how I could have made a difference for someone else. I wanted time to tell and show my family and friends how much they mean to me. I wanted time to tell how God had changed my life in so many different areas. I wanted time to finish working on my business that has the potential to impact thousands of people’s lives. I just wanted more time. But I had wasted so much time.
Today, I have decided that I will make the best of my 1440 every day. Even Facebook suggests that you make the most of your day by staying in touch with friends and loved ones. You even have a choice to edit your preferences. So why not make the same choice about your life and edit your preferences on how you choose to spend your 1440? Does this mean that I want choose to sit and watch meaningless TV shows or play on social media occasionally? No, it does not. It simply means I have a choice and my time is priceless and I want to maximize it to truly live my best life.
Ecclesiastes 3:1: There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. How will you use your 1440?
Special thanks to Ron Toran, CEO, OFA Consulting for helping me to reflect on my 1440. T-Shirts available Order Here