Value your time

In most of my post, I tried to be insightful... To show something usefull to someone. But i'll try something different this time. Since I have a little trouble with organizing my time, i'll share a simple test I did.

Take a sheet of paper. Divide it in four. On the top write 'Urgent' and 'Not Urgent' at the top of each of the collums. Write 'Important' and 'Not Important' in each of the row.

Done? ok

Now, try to place things you do in a day, projects you have, things that should be done, daily chores, etc. in an appropriate place. Think carefully before you place anything.Take your time.

Done?

Now look back at the sheet, but don't change anything. Is everything placed right? Is it really urgent? It is really important? is it both?

This exercise is supposed to show you want you fill you time with. We tend to fill our time with things that are urgent, but not neccessarily important, and neglect the important thing, until they become urgent. Yet, when you stop and think about it, it should be the opposite, we should be doing important things first...

It is mostly a problem of priority, but also one of perception. We don't think before we do things. We don't stop, and think: 'it is urgent? Should I be really doing this?'. I know I already talked about this butI want to really explain the idea behind it.

I give the example of the telephone. It rings. It is urgent? Of course! If you don't answer you will miss the call. But is really important? What will happen if you miss the call? It is really worth stoping what you are curently doing? Can't you just call back and say: 'Sorry I could not come to the phone'? It's even worst when you think that cellular phones are everywhere. I made a conscious decision and told my friends, that unless i'm not occupied, I might not answer the phone. If it is really urgent, they can send me an SMS. It takes me 5 sec to read it and I think it's more important that what I'm doing, I will call back. I do the same for them.

Another example is the all news channel. It is presented as if every bit of news was important, and we tend to sit there watching the news slowly develop minute by minute, hour by hour. But what do we learn that we would'n have learn simply watching the evening news? There is a certain limit to witch we can absord information. beyong that point, we suffer from something called 'information overload' where you see so much information, that you have trouble remember most of it. The north american sosciety is so obsessed with time and information that this sort of reflection is never done. We react to the what the world throws at us, but we don't priotize what we do.

I had one friend who could not cope with the idea of not seeing a movie in a cinema. He was so used the movie theater experience that he could not accept less. Now the theater experience is quite nice, I'll say that much, but it really that important? What is going to happen if you don't see that movie? I, on the other hand, don't watch much tv these days, much less go to a theater. I moved to a dorm on the campus 6 years ago, in a room with not access to cable or satelitte tv. At first, it felt like I was missing something, but I got used to watch nothing much than the evening news. I don't feel like I missed something important. No I didn't watch 'Lost' or '24'. I'm sure it's pretty good, but It's not called 'the entertainement industry' for nothing. I just didn't felt like I needed to be entertained. I can occupy my time with something else.

We have to learn to say 'NO'. Why? Because it's not important. Nobody will die. Nothing will explode. The world will still turn. The sun will still burn.

Value your time. Value your energy. You have a limited supply of both.