National “Take Back Your Time Week-Jan 25th-29th: What Is Time? How To Create More Time For Yourself
Posted: Thursday, January 27, 2011
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
The subject of “time” is fascinating to me; especially since the older I become, the faster time seems to go. Then I begin to ask myself questions, such as “Is it really going faster or is that I perceive it is going faster?” Some days I will think what happened to the time? It got away from me today.
One theory about time is that it is an illusion. (That thought is so deep that it requires and deserves a whole other article)
One of my favorite movies is “Peggy Sue Got Married.” Peggy Sue fainted at a class reunion and during that period of time, she had a dream in which she went back in time to her teen years. In this dream, she was a teen-ager who knew what was going to happen in the future. She knew whom she would marry, pantyhose would be invented and we would send an astronaut to the moon. It was a bittersweet experience for her.
Like Peggy Sue, I would sometimes like to browse in time. It would be like visiting the library and picking out a book. I would pick out an era of time that I wanted to visit and go there for a while. Maybe I would visit with my mother (who has passed away). Many times I have thought, if only I could just see her for a few minutes. Maybe I would browse into a future time, to see what has happened with our country or how my grandchildren’s grandchildren are doing.
A very brilliant autistic child could understand time better than me when he said, “Time is a mystery and not even a thing and no one has ever solved the puzzle of what time is, exactly. And so, if you get lost in time, it is like being lost in a desert, except that you can’t see the desert because it is not a thing." (From The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time).
Another way he saw time was: “Time is only a relationship between the way different things change like the earth going round the sun…..And because nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, this means that we can only know about a fraction of the things that go on in the universe.”
Do you wish you could be frozen in time at some point (a very happy experience)? If we could freeze time, we could perhaps be happy but then we would be stuck in a moment. Maybe just happy experiences alone would not be so much fun because there would not be any unhappy experiences to compare it with and therefore we probably wouldn’t know how happy we are/were.
Sometimes we are overwhelmed emotionally when we try to project into the future and even control it. However, the more we try to do that, the less we are enjoying our “time” at this moment.
Quick Tips On How To Have More Time
· Guard your time. Be like a soldier on guard duty and make sure unwanted people who don’t have a “pass” enter. I know that sounds harsh, but if you have something pressing to do and not much time, you have to be a little selfish. You could find a way to decline an invitation or telephone conversation gracefully and perhaps if you set a date for this person or thing, you could mange it better.
· Get organized. Either write down or know (in your head) what your goals are for the next day. Don’t wake up and aimlessly wonder what you should do. If you write down weekly what your goals are, you will be surprised how it will ease your mind and you will accomplish so much more.
· When the mail comes each day, it should either me filed or tossed. Don’t leave mail lying around unattended. If it is a bill, put it in a special place for bills. A messy counter or desk makes one tired, and unproductive.
· Do the things you do not enjoy doing first, then reward yourself by doing something you really enjoy.
· Instead of spring-cleaning your house, do an extra job each week, such as cleaning out a closet or drawer. Instead of cleaning all your cabinets in one day, do one cabinet a week or one every day until that task is accomplished.
How much time do we really have? Only this moment …not yesterday, nor tomorrow, but only this moment.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)The national "take back your time week" - is that your invention, Fran, or is it real? Whichever, it's a good idea. The passage of time also fascinates and bothers me. One thing I've become so aware of, is that it's precious and I don't want to waste it doing things that don't bring enough reward. I love your suggestions, they're great.
I like the idea of doing something you hate first and then doing something you like. That works for me. Now maybe I can find the time thief.
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