Philip Goldberg, author of Get Out of Your Own Way, says we fall back on the "no time" excuse because we're "attracted to the outcome and not the process, which is often arduous. We're pleasure-seeking animals and we have difficulty with anything that requires even minor sacrifices."
Sometimes what we perceive to be a lack of time is actually a lack of direction. It's hard to know what's worth spending time on unless we know what we want out of life. For that, Goldberg recommends quieting the mind through meditation, prayer, or a walk in the woods. "You're going to be obsessing about this stuff anyway," he says. "If you can quiet your mind enough [to think through these larger questions], it's more efficient."
Time management tough love
On a purely practical level, however, the reason we can't find time for that one thing we've always wanted to do is that we don't set aside time for it, says Julie Morgenstern, a time management expert and author of the best-selling Organizing from the Inside Out.
"People are constantly planning to do what they've always wanted to do when there is extra time, and there will never, ever, ever be extra time," she says. "In today's world, when every moment is flooded with five thousand options about what you could do, and should do, and what others want you to do, there is no such thing as free time."
There isn't time to do everything. And, no matter how badly we want it to, time does not expand to fit our to-do lists. Unless you're okay with only helping others accomplish their goals and never accomplishing your own, it's important to be intentional about where you spend your time.
"You have to ask yourself, if I say yes to this person or activity, who and what will I say no to?" says Morgenstern. "If you don't make choices, they'll be made for you and you won't get to do what you want to do. It takes courage."
From Intentional Living: How to find the time to do anything (not everything!)
time does not expand to fit our to-do lists
Time management tough love
On a purely practical level, however, the reason we can't find time for that one thing we've always wanted to do is that we don't set aside time for it, says Julie Morgenstern, a time management expert and author of the best-selling Organizing from the Inside Out.
"People are constantly planning to do what they've always wanted to do when there is extra time, and there will never, ever, ever be extra time," she says. "In today's world, when every moment is flooded with five thousand options about what you could do, and should do, and what others want you to do, there is no such thing as free time."
There isn't time to do everything. And, no matter how badly we want it to, time does not expand to fit our to-do lists. Unless you're okay with only helping others accomplish their goals and never accomplishing your own, it's important to be intentional about where you spend your time.
"You have to ask yourself, if I say yes to this person or activity, who and what will I say no to?" says Morgenstern. "If you don't make choices, they'll be made for you and you won't get to do what you want to do. It takes courage."
From Intentional Living: How to find the time to do anything (not everything!)
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