5 Reasons You Don't Have Enough Time

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone told me they wished for more hours in the day. I’ve wished that myself – bemoaning the way the time seems to fly by (unless you're at a 4th grade recorder concert listening to Hot Cross Buns for the gazillionth time…but never mind about that).

My quote queen, Melissa, sent this one to the team this morning:

"Do you procrastinate? Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

I remember reading that one a long time ago, and it really made me think. Time is a constant. What changes is our attitude, our language, our choices. When we adopt a poverty mentality, there will never be enough time. So let’s get real here. Here are 5 reasons you probably don’t have enough time:

You don’t know where your time goes.

Sometimes we just don’t realize how much time we spend on certain activities. You know you have to work, eat, sleep. Maybe you go to church or volunteer or have a hobby. Maybe you have kids or take care of aging parents. We all juggle many commitments, but have you ever really mapped out how you spend your time? Do a quick rundown of all the activities and obligations you have in the course of a week and do the math. Is it realistic to think you can squeeze it all in?

You can’t say: No.

Most of us are way over - committed. When you don’t have a realistic picture of how you spend your time, you are likely to keep running up a time debt. Think about it: if you never balanced you bank account, you would likely run into the red -unless, unlike myself, you have unlimited resources. You don’t do you? No, I didn’t think so. Time is like money. When you know how much you have to work with, then you can say no to some things you just can’t afford.

You really are wasting time.
Some of the loudest whiners I know regarding time management woes are the same people that spend an inordinate amount of time complaining, gossiping, over-sharing on Facebook and so on. You know who you are. Cut it out.

You are sabotaging yourself.

If you want to get real, there may be some bad habits you need to address. Do you stay up too late watching TV (a top time-waster)? Do you oversleep, run late, wait ‘til the last minute, fail to prepare, procrastinate, fail to follow up, work in a chaotic, disorganized space? I could go on and on. Something as simple as laying out your clothes the night before and arriving to an appointment 10 minutes early can give you enough margin in your day to completely change your perception of time abundance.

You have forgotten what’s important.

Ever get to the end of a busy day – exhausted - with nothing to show for it? You spend all day putting out fires and managing interruptions and never get to what really matters. Do you know what really matters to you? If you wish you could read more, maybe you need to turn off the TV. If you want to build a stronger family, maybe you need to be intentional about protecting time together. If you want to impress the boss, you may need to make an appointment with yourself for some uninterrupted time to work out that great idea or organize that strategic project.

And one more thing: I’d suggest rethinking what you think is an important priority every so often. For a long time I thought it was really important for me to run a marathon, and yet I was really resenting the time commitment required for training. Once I honestly examined my motivations and realized that this wasn’t really as important to me as I thought, I could release that obligation. Not only did I free up some time, but I freed myself to enjoy the time I was running.

Do any of these strike a chord with you? Have you found ways to restore your perception of having enough time?