What Do You Wish You Had More Time For?

Time is that valuable commodity that you will never, ever get back. You could buy anything you want with money but the only thing we will never be able to buy is time that has already passed. Maybe someday in the future someone will design a time travelling machine, but unless that machine can bring your youth back, you'll only be that old person going back in time with that fancy time travelling gizmo.

When I told someone a long time ago that I had no spare time and that I was too busy, he said to me that it will always be too busy for everyone, but if it's important enough or you want it enough, you'll always make time for it.

Today, I found myself thinking and wishing that I had more time. Thinking and wishing about something is absolutely useless so I realised that I have to actively and consciously make time for what I want. Life gets more complex every single year and so those days of drinking and reading everything under the sky, lazy breakfasts and sun baking are all gone.

When I was younger back in 2009 I thought I had all the answer to time management which you can read because it is timeless and ever so helpful ;)  I even wrote posts such as, 'How to master time and not be a slave to it.' Five years later, I am so inundated with work, opportunities and investments in addition to more family members and more friends that the 'free' time that I had suddenly seemed as if it had never existed.

What do you wish you had more time for? Compile that list and then allocate the time to your list.

Here's mine to start things off:

I wish I had more time for:

1. Family and friends: The most important thing to me in this world is my family and friends. They are who keeps me sane, entertained and feeling loved. I will try to spend at least one day each week and some weeknights catching up with family and friends. Allocate time: Daily.

2. Work: I'm a self confessed workaholic. If I didn't have any family or friends, I would be working every single minute and hour of the day to the point where I wouldn't even sleep much. I work up to six and sometimes seven days a week. I am always trying to work smarter though. There are always ways to improve work and so that I can achieve more within the time framework. Allocate time: Daily (can't help myself there :p)

3. Learning new things such as programming and skilling up: I must make time to learn something new every single day. If we all learnt something new daily as early as we can, we have a whole lifetime to benefit from that new knowledge and time to apply the knowledge and skill to our benefit. I am reading technical books on IT, finance, accounting and agriculture daily and will commit time to acquiring new certifications and qualifications every single day. Allocate time: Daily

4. Keeping on top of social media: This one kills me. I find it so hard to find the time to reply to every single text message, watsapp messages, emails on five different accounts, Facebook posts/messages and friends' updates. Sometimes at the end of the week, I check what I haven't replied to and it's like 100 messages and it makes me happy that I have family and friends who care about what I'm up to, but it stresses me out somewhat that I can't reply to all of them promptly. I will try to find time daily to respond and stay on top of social media. Allocate time: Daily

5. Gardening: I love gardening and growing things. I try to commit at least 30 minutes three to four times a week for gardening. Allocate time: Every second day.

6. Blogging: Writing is a passion. People have asked me how and where do I find the inspiration to write about topics and things and I tell them that if I read, watch, hear or see something, my mind is always coming up with an idea, an opinion and wanting to give feedback, which is what inspires the writing. These last few years have been so busy that I haven't written as much as I would like to, so I am going to try to dedicate at least three hours each week for writing, whether it be on this blog or in replying to emails and correspondences. Allocate time: Every second day.

7. Cooking and trying new recipes: Trying new recipes takes effort in buying and locating ingredients. Long gone are the days where I would spend entire weekends trying all sorts of recipes and baking something. I have lots of cook books on the bookshelves gathering dust. I am going to try to cook at least two new recipes every week. Allocate time: Weekly

8. Craft work and designing: This is the more creative side that is always crying out for time. I always tend to relegate this to the back burner because it never seemed like such an essential thing but it is always relaxing when I spend time on more creative things.

9. Working on and executing ideas: My mind is always bursting with ideas on websites, writing, applications, business areas to try out and investing opportunities. These are the hardest areas to focus on because I always feel that I need quiet time to focus and brainstorm on the design and application of these ideas. I have no quiet time and not a single moment of downtime. I am always on the up and go. So I must make time at least once a week for a few hours to work on these designs. I am always making time for investing but not enough. Allocate time: 3 hours weekly

10. Watching TV series and movies: I just love TV shows and movies. Allocate time: Weekly

This feels almost like goal setting but it's not. Setting goals is different because it involves an end target, a specific end game and it's measurable. I do have plenty of goals which I haven't blogged about, but this post is more about finding time and time management rather than goal setting.

For each of the items above, if I were to write about goal setting, it would be something like, design and finalise two clients blogs by six months:

1. Design two new blogs for clients in the next three months
2. Test the blogs with the clients over four weeks for design and application
3. Take the blog live by the fifth month and review feedback from clients
4. Finalise blog design for clients by the sixth month

Well, hope you all compile your own list and commit time to executing the items on your list =)