Our Relationship With Time

We have a strange relationship with time. 

It is an invented construct to organize the world and coordinate actions within it. It’s important to participate in the time bound world, but our best ideas and insights come from our ability to decouple ourselves from it. Is that even possible? The answer is yes.

Time is also our most valuable resource. You can’t stuff it in your pocket and use it tomorrow. You also can’t stop the clock. If time is so valuable, why do we give it away so quickly to things that later seem unimportant? How do you understand what is important?

Before I started my writing practice, I didn’t really know what was important. Without understanding what was important, I prioritized the urgent by attempting to stay ahead of all of the incoming urgency. I remember finishing really busy days asking myself of the true significance of my actions that day.

Consider the number 1440. It’s the number of minutes in every day. If you are sleeping eight hours, the remaining balance is 960. Just fifteen minutes of that balance is roughly 1% of your day. Open your calendar now and see if you can find fifteen minutes for yourself every day. Are you feeling a slight onset of overwhelm? When I first started journaling, it stressed me out a bit to make time for it. Why do we feel guilty dedicating time for ourselves? Holding space is half the battle. Josh Waitzkin writes about slack in the system. Slack in the system does not make you a slacker. 

Recall the last time you were on an airplane. The flight attendant’s instructions were to put on your mask before helping others, right? You can be a better student, parent, employee, spouse, entrepreneur if you know yourself. Like really know yourself. 

How do you know yourself?

By acknowledging old frameworks that power the world and hold space for yourself anyway.

Then, you write.