Who Has the Time?

Time. I am writing this as I'm listening to a time management lecture by Randy Pausch, the guy who essentially wrote "The Last Lecture" (Jeff Zaslow really wrote it, but it was based on the lecture by Randy Pausch). Great book... I definitely recommend it. Anyways, time. Time is ticking by right now. Sometimes it goes by so fast and sometimes it feels so slow. Why is that?

I also love the book Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. In Stargirl, there is this quote that always stuck with me...

"Nobody has the time. The time cannot be owned. Time is free to everyone!"

(While looking for this quote, I came across this blog which I found really interesting. Check it out as I will later....)

If you really think about it, time is the one thing we have that is always free. Always there. Never stops and always keeps going. Whether you want it to go slower, or faster, need more... it remains the same. At the same time, we don't know how much of it we will have in our lives. Even if you receive a death sentence, a doctor cannot tell you the specific day in which you will die and your time here will cease.

Here are the most important things in life I think we need to remember related to time:

• Get organized. OK, OK, I do work at a place called Organize-It, I've compulsively made my bed every day since I was 5 years old, and everyone knows how neat I am. But still, I think it is important to everyone. Think about a time when you couldn't do something because you couldn't find it. I strongly believe you will get a lot more work done if you just take the time to put things in order first.

• Get the bad stuff done before you can get on to the fun. OK, I am definitely bad at this one sometimes. Jot down a to-do list and get done that dreaded homework, head off to work, or clean your room before you can go out and do the thing you want to do. Guarantee you might have more time to do the thing you like if you get the other stuff done first.

• Think about what you're doing right now. Surfing the web mindlessly? Watching TV? Anything else you could be doing that would be more productive or more satisfying? I strongly believe you need your downtime to do nothing and chill out, but I know I spend more time doing those things than I really need to.

• Don't waste time being angry. Get angry, yell, cry, fight, and get over it. I think a lot of people waste time being mad at someone they love for stupid reasons. Argue and fix it. Spend lots of loving time with the people you love. You don't know how long you might have with them.

• "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Plan your day, plan your life, and plan to leave room for days or minutes when you have nothing at all planned to do.

I'll end on a quote by the late, great Benjamin Franklin.

"Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of."