Time: the resource you should be paying attention to.

This is a topic that’s been on my mind a lot lately: time. Not necessarily the time of the day. It is 7:06 a.m. central time for anyone wondering when I’m writing this. That’s not necessarily the time I mean. Well, I guess it kind of is. But it isn’t. Let me explain.

Every person on this planet has exactly 24 hours in a day. No more. No less. It’s the same for every one of us. That’s 1,440 minutes every day. Or 86,400 seconds every day. It’s the one resource that everyone has exactly the same amount. You can’t say that about money. Or water. Or food. But you can say that about time.

It starts at Midnight every day. It ends at 11:59 and 59 seconds every day. Most people spend a third of that (at least) sleeping. Depending on the day of the week, another eight to twelve hours is spent working in some capacity. That means the average person (on a work day) has around four to eight hours for themselves. During that time, they’ll have to eat, including preparing and cleaning up. Getting ready for work is included in that time. Any type of working out is also in there.

If the average person takes an hour to get ready for work (not a scientific study…that’s my own reasoning). Take an hour for working out (including travel time to and from the gym). Throw in two hours for eating and cleanup (this includes all three meals). Now the day is down to zero to four hours left. In that time, you have to find time to pick up the house, do laundry, etc. This does not include any other activities like baseball practice for the kids or going to church on Wednesday nights, etc. 

So what’s the point? The point is time. Time is not like money. You can’t make more of it. You can’t invest it somewhere and gain more. It doesn’t work that way. The Earth revolves around the sun and rotates like clockwork (pun intended there). You only have a finite amount of it. And the real kicker here is that we don’t know the exact number we have. Again, not like money. We can’t look at a bank statement and see how much time we have left to spend. It doesn’t work that way. 

With all that in mind, it’s amazing to me how many people spend those hours scrolling through social media posts. Arguing with strangers over the internet. Getting mad about the latest town gossip. Instead of spending time with our families we are scrolling through our phones and act like that’s normal. 

Some of the saddest scenes I see on a weekly basis are those families in the restaurant. All four or five of them sitting there at the table. Everyone of them staring at a phone instead of having a conversation. If you are looking at the phone, you are telling the person across from you that the phone in my hand is more important than the conversation I’m having with you right now. This Facebook post is more important than you. We have traded family dinners with cell phones. 

Last summer I was at a family members house. There was a mother who needed help with her two kids (2 year old and a newborn). The dad at the time was sitting on the couch scrolling through his phone and oblivious to what was going on around him.

I like using my phone but enough is enough. I started taking steps recently to avoid this type of behavior in my life. When I go into a restaurant, the phone stays in my pocket or inside the car. I have recently deleted my Facebook account. Decided I didn’t need it anymore. I’ve tried to stop scrolling through social media. I’ve even played around with screen time on the phone to limit the amount of time I allow myself to get on those apps. I started carrying a notebook so I can write things down with pen and paper instead of pulling out the phone.

I’m not saying everyone should take these steps but I am saying this: you only have an allotted amount of time to live. Wouldn’t you rather spend that time living instead of scrolling? By the way, it’s March 16th right now. It was Valentines Day yesterday. And Christmas the Day before that. Time is flying by….tick, tick, tick, tick. Get off the phone and get outside!