How About 25 Hours in a Day?

Have you ever heard someone say “There just aren’t enough hours in a day!” Being overwhelmed and stressed can bring about feelings of frustration, inadequacies, and even failure.  Every day, experts in the medical profession work with patients and prescribe treatments for stress relief. Numerous speakers, books, articles, and infomercials offer strategies for productive time management and stress reduction. And yet, people continue to say “There just isn’t enough hours in a day!”

Author, Belinda Munoz of Tiny Buddha states: “Time is our most valuable commodity…We cram all that goes with living into twenty-four hours of ticking, bargaining with Father Time naively expecting it to budge to our willful and resolute intentions and produce more, accomplish more, be more.” Could one or two more hours in a day be the answer for us to get more done, be efficient and reduce stress? What if you were given an extra hour? Would that extra hour be the “magic pill” to end that overwhelming feeling? Would you add more activities to your “to do” list, get more sleep, or finally get out and exercise?  

Perhaps it is not adding an extra hour or two, but what we do with the hours already given to us. Have you ever truly considered all that you do in 24 hours? Here is a simple exercise that can help in giving you an idea about your 24 hours.
1.)  List your top 5 priorities in order of importance (Examples:faith, spouse, friends, job, finances, etc.)
2.)  Keep a journal of ALL that you do for one week. This includes time for eating, sleeping, exercising and surfing the internet. Be specific with all that you are recording as surfing Facebook is different than answering your work emails.
3.) Total the number of hours/minutes for each activity and rank them accordingly.
4.) Compare the list of activities with your priorities. Do the priorities line up with what you spend most of your 24 hours?

“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants; The question is what are we busy about?” Henry David Thoreau

At times, life provides us with numerous tasks, unexpected interruptions, and deadlines all due at the same time. We wonder how it will all get done in 24 hours. Understanding that being busy and at times feeling overwhelmed is ok if we stay intentionally focused with a resolute attitude on what is most important. Great news! We have 24 hours in a day!

“What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.” Unknown