You don’t have the time! There just isn’t enough time! If I only had more time!

Do you every find yourself putting thing off or find yourself not starting the things in life that you want or that could make a difference? Do you ever say to yourself I wish I had the time to do that, or if I only had more time I could (fill in the blank)?

Often times we do this in our lives, we fill our time with things that serve us no purpose or even worse that create problems for us! Why do we do it? What is it about time that seems so elusive and why does it seem so hard to master time for so many people?

Think about what you want to accomplish, personally, professionally, spiritually, in your relationships? What could you do if you just had more time, just another hour to do what you needed to do, or wanted to do?

It is much easier to see time being wasted when someone brings it up in their life than it is in your own. How do I know, because I still waste time on occasion and I often talk to people that tell me things like “I don’t have the time” or “if I just had more time”. This is because it is hard to accept our own flaws and admit that we waste time or do things in life that are not productive.

We all waste time, the difference between the people that achieve success, lasting success in most things is their ability to harness time and leverage it to their advantage. This takes a lot of self discipline and training for most people and often it is easier to take the easy path than it is to work hard over and over and over, day in and day out. It is easy to sit down, take a break, and turn on the TV, or flip though social media and look at nonsense.

A lack of time is not the real problem for people, it is the way in which the time is used that creates the problems.

Wasting time has become a pastime for many, possibly even you… and it is ruining your life and keeping you from achieving success. So how do we change that? How to you go from living an average life to one where you master time and productivity?

The first step is to realize that what you do makes a difference, how you spend the time you have will determine how far you get in life! It is easy to make excuses and say “I don’t have time” but what is that doing for you? It is keeping you right where you are now! When you accept that you waste time you then can choose to use your time wisely.

So… where do you spend your time?

You need to ask yourself that question. Where do you waste time? We all do it sometimes, it is those of us that waste less time that get further along in life. Do you waste time with TV or social media? Maybe you waste time just day dreaming, or looking at magazines or pictures. Lots of people drive to work and some quite a distance with a significant amount of time involved.

Take the time to evaluate what you do throughout the day, do that for a couple of weeks. Write it down and keep track of it. Break it down into 30 minute sections and see what you do with your time. Be honest with yourself and track it because your success depends on it!

If you know the thing/s you want to do in life, the changes you want to make, then you now have the second piece of the puzzle. For you to change anything you have to know where you want to go. You can learn more about knowing where you want to go here (Why you need to find out who you have been) and here (Goals and setting yourself up for success).

Now that you know where you spend your time, or should I say where you waste time you can start to use your time wisely. You should now have an idea of where you want to go and what you want to do to achieve success, and now you can implement changes that use the time we all have to achieving the success you deserve.

I believe for most people the desire to do more is inherently instilled, most people want to achieve more, to do better, to achieve success whatever that looks like to them.

The third part of the puzzle is figuring out what you want to do or what you are willing to do to achieve success. If you already know the things you are doing that are not helping you, the time you are wasting and you know where you want to go you can start by replacing small blocks of time throughout your week with things that help you achieve your long term goals and ultimately success.

Once you have set some good goals and have decided to make a change you will need to come up with a few ideas that will set you on the path to achieving your goals. If you didn’t read my post on goals yet you can here.

You are now ready to put it all together. Remember this is not a quick process, it takes time to change your habits and make yourself into something new. This is a long process, a journey that for the rest of your life, a process you can use and if applied daily for the duration will help lead to success in whatever you want.

You can start small or big with the changes in using your time. If you read my post on goals you will already know what I am talking about and it will make sense.

Start with making a 30 minute decision, once a week or 30 minutes of change every day! Don’t watch two hours of TV watch one and a half and use the extra half hour to build a business, study in your current field and gain knowledge, read a book (not some random novel but a book related to growth, progress, history, anything that will gain you knowledge). There is so many things you can do with your time if you are just willing to make the change and put in the effort and work.

How about on your commute to and from work or two and from your friends or families houses, you get an audio book and listen, or learn a language. That is totally free time and while you will not be focused solely on what you hear you will be able to gain some knowledge instead of listening to music and zoning out.

How about at lunch time you read while you eat!

If you think you struggle with managing your time I would suggest you get a planner, there are some very good ones out there but even a basic calendar will do. Like I said write it all down, take stock of your time and then put down exactly what you are going to do. Some examples of what I out down daily are: 1 hour of exercise, 30 minutes reading, 30 minutes studying, 1 hour on my business. This is all on top of my regular 11 hour work day! Do the math 24 hours in day… 24-1-.5-.5-1-11=10 hours left!!! 6.5 hours of sleep leaves me with another 3.5 still!!! That’s my free time and time for all sort of fun stuff and family.

I know this can be done… How do I know because I do this every day! Anyone can make the change, evaluate the time they have and then choose to use their time wisely.

Now its time to ask yourself the questions, do I have the time, am I using my time wisely, do I not have the time? Hopefully you now see that you do have the time it is most likely you are filling your time with things that serve you no purpose and do nothing towards helping you achieve success!

And the final question… If you are not using your time wisely, what are YOU going to do about it?

Here is a video I did on time too…