Many of us work. My average work day, including travel time, is about 10 hours. I average about 6.5 hours of sleep a day. Between work and sleep, this is almost two-thirds of my day. Depending on my workday, some but not most of the remaining one-third will be filled with random events, including errands or household chores. What about the time that I can’t account for?

The question doesn’t need an answer but should initiate an internal analysis. Before starting this blog, I asked this question, “What do I do with my time?” It staggered me to realize that I didn’t have a good answer. so then, I began to ask, “So, how do I waste my time?”

I suppose that, when we change our verb from do to waste, the lens framing our actions changes. This can motivate you to start to deliberately use your time on things that move you towards a focused life of intention.

Taking a moment to do this work seems “hard“ but will go a long way towards making your life easier over the long-term. I watch less TV than I used to, so that I can focus my time on this site or the background work like reading, journaling and notetaking necessary to write a good piece. At work, I try to do certain work at pre-determined times of the day, so that I don’t take my attention away from what I need to be working on at that moment. If something comes up, I decide whether I can afford to do it later or am force to address it. I set some large goals for things that I want to accomplish and have broken these down into daily tasks to remind me what I need to do first. As I tell my son, I like to “keep things moving.”

Making these defined decisions regarding your goals, priorities (coming from the Latin prior: “in front of, before, first”) and time will empower you to make specific decisions based on your foundational goals and personal values.

As you finish this piece, ask yourself these questions to stimulate your internal thinking:

1. Is it still worth it to exchange X amount of time for money for Y activity? Why or why not?

2. What should come first? What is my immediate priority?