People are busy. I hear people talking all the time about the things they don’t have time to do. Sacrifices must be made in the name of time, even though we wish we didn’t have to.
People are really busy…but are they productive?
I’m sorry to say that in too many cases the answer to that question is a great big NO. People get so busy that they can’t even find the time to question if what they are doing is getting them closer to their goals and objectives. (Assuming of course they invested time in actually setting goals)
I’d suggest to you that if you didn’t do something yesterday to get closer to one of your goals then no matter how busy you were you were not productive.
One of the most productive things people can do is set aside a few minutes EVERY day to learn something new. With all the blogs and podcasts available these days that’s never been easier. If you’re selective with the blogs and podcasts you read and listen to you could even learn something true. 🙂
But again, people are really busy and don’t have time to feed their brain. That’s what learning is you know, literally feeding your brain. I’m pretty sure if you can find 15 minutes a day to feed your stomach then you can find the time to feed your brain as well.
That’s all I’m suggesting here and not even 15 minutes a day, how about 15 minutes 3 or 4 days a week. For many of us that’s far more than we’re investing in our futures today.
Read a book, even if it takes weeks and weeks to finish it. The most successful people are big time readers. They are never far from a book. They have made a habit out of reading which is not surprise. Successful people have developed the habits of doing the things that less successful people don’t like to do…or won’t invest the time to do.
I’ll bet you can’t tell me how you used all 10,080 minutes available to you last week. But I can tell you that it’s highly likely you frittered away a good many of them. Those are minutes you’ll never get back, you’ve lost them forever. If you had invested 45 of them in learning then you have at least 45 minutes that can never be taken away from you.
A little learning, each and every week leads to a lot of learning before you know it. Make a habit of learning something new on a regular basis; you might be surprised at how much there is to learn.
Steve,
I wrote this about 6 years ago. https://garygruber.com/no-virtue-in-being-busy/
Even when I worked full time, I put commitments on my calendar that took me away from being busy, spaces, hours, even days for me. It was not only self-preservation but me time to choose to do whatever I wanted whether fishing, walking, reading, traveling, writing or some other personal pursuit. There was plenty of time to meet the needs of others both at work and at home. Wonder how we might say, “I am not busy nor am I idle. I am engaged in meaningful and enjoyable activities, learning, growing and changing.” Interesting you should focus on learning. My little book title, published in 2013 was “Seven Decades: A Learning Memoir”
Cheers,
G/
Gary Gruber, Ph.D.
PO Box 4926
Tubac, AZ 85646
505-795-4329
From: Lead Today Reply-To: Lead Today Date: Sunday, April 25, 2021 at 4:15 PM To: Subject: [New post] Learning a Little Leads to Learning a Lot
Steve Keating posted: ” People are busy. I hear people talking all the time about the things they don’t have time to do. Sacrifices must be made in the name of time, even though we wish we didn’t have to. People are really busy…but are they productive? I’m s”
Thanks Gary, you did something that far too few people invest the time to do… that calendar thing makes ALL the difference. The commitment to ourselves just isn’t real until it’s written down. That’s when we discover we really do have time for others AND ourselves.