Managing Time: Make the Most of It

Society grinds along by those who sacrifice themselves to the screaming of alarms, the constriction of schedules, the anxiety of due dates and deadlines, and the mocking tick of clocks. Time passes as humans rush through moments that will never again exist in the past, present, and futures we base our lives upon—entirely for a paycheck.

Time is overbearing yet weightless and many people fail to acknowledge its non-existence as much as they worry about its existence. Using the unavoidable to distract ourselves from the inevitable is how civilization has always functioned.

There is a common misconception that time equates to the future. However, much like the future, time does not exist.

It would be ridiculous to try and explain being present and non-existent time to a senior undergraduate in their last semester.

On the other hand, we cannot deny that time has become so frequently stressed out about that it manifests into a creature we avoid or a machine we attempt to rig.

We are not able to live our lives comfortably under time’s watchful eye.

Everyone (at any age) can relate to never having enough time in a day, but what we need to realize is that we are allotted the exact amount of time that we need.

We are so used to pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion in order to fit the standards of society that we do not see how much time is really present.

Instead of staying present in a situation where time will not allow it, acknowledge your priorities and know that they are part of a system that exists only to pass the time.

I recently began to realize that embracing inspiration instead of limitation is more effective. Some key actions I started to take in order to balance my relationship with time and staying present are:

1.  Set Goals: Use a journal, colorful pens, highlighters, and tiny sticky notes with doodles.

“In the diary [or journal] you find proof that in situations which today would seem unbearable, you lived, looked around and wrote down observations, that this right hand moved then as it does today” — Franz Kafka

2. Make Schedules: Buy/create a planner for every day of the week and write down a new hobby to spend time on.

“A Goal without a plan is just a wish” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

3. Set aside 10 – 30 minutes for personal hobbies. If this amount of time is not possible try watching a 5-minute motivational video. If more time can be set then extend self-care.

“No man is really happy or safe without a hobby” — William Osler

4. Keep fruit and water readily available at all times of the day.

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality” — Earl Nightingale

All our lives we will be forced to submit ourselves to working and paying bills, yet still, the time we have is ours. Managing it better can help us make the most of it.

 

Shaylah is an aspiring coder, crafter, and Bitcoin connoisseur. She is a senior and English major with a writing concentration at Georgian Court University on a mission to save the world (or simply inspire more woman coders).