Jacob Morgan | Best-Selling Author, Speaker, & Futurist | Leadership | Future of Work | Employee Experience

Don't Have Enough Time?

I hear this a lot from people, apparently nobody has time for “stuff” anymore.  Well, sorry guys, I call bullshit.  Time is clearly a prized possession and is probably the most valuable resource that we have.  I’m the CMO of a startup, I’m the chief relationship and communications officer for Hirank, I write on my blog, I’m a contributing writer on bublicious, and I still have time to go the gym, play my guitar, and have fun.  I’m not writing this to gloat.  I’m writing this to say that you probably DO have time but you’re just not using it to do the things you should be doing.

Spend 1 hour less playing that PS3 and start that blog you’ve been wanting to get up.  Instead of waking up at 8am try waking up at 7.  Spend less time looking at those youtube videos that take up so much of your time.  Now, I know that everyone is different and some of you have families/ 2 jobs etc.  But most of the people I talk to DO have time, but they waste it.

This post is meant to be a little kick in the ass for all of you who are wanting to do something but complain about time.  It’s tough to get out of the habit of killing time and I know that when you get off of work or when you have free time all you want to do is relax.  Truth be told, when you do something you love you don’t really feel like you’re working.  I have interacted with many of my readers and I know how smart and capable you folks are.  I can tell from your comments, emails, twitter messages, etc.

You guys don’t give yourself enough credit for your capabilities and abilities and you have to stop that.  You Do have the time and you DO have the brains to get your stuff done.

Essentially you have two choices; you can bitch about how you don’t have time to do something or you can suck it up and do what you have to do to get your stuff done.

what’s your choice?  I would be glad to help you so let me know if you have any questions or want my advice/opinion.

thanks for reading

20 thoughts on “Don't Have Enough Time?”

  1. Damn right…your time is what you make of it. Life's too short to “not have time”.

    As one of my professors in college always said, “Sleep is rehearsal for death.”

    Get up and go do what you wanna do. Sleep later!

  2. Wow.. an inspiring most Jacob.. very interesting! Kicked my ass to think over it.. and first thing comes to my mind.. stop drooling around RSS Readers (with 100+ Feeds and 1000+ stories updating every day) … stop spending too much time on FaceBook & Twitter.. I mean they are good.. why do we have to get addicted. checking every now and then!

    But seriously one thing I have noticed these days, I tend to spend more time on reading arttices via my RSS Reader where I have subscribed to many sites that interest me. Takes 4 or 5 hours of my day.. I should change this habbit…!!

    5 Hours on RSS Reader
    2 Hours on Twitter
    1 Hour on FaceBook/Orkut
    1 Hour on Checking E-Mail (again and again!!)
    1 Hour on thinking if I should comment/reply (Blogs/Forums)

    OMG.. I am spending 10 hours a day over this.. I should trim to .. let's say like 3 or 4 hrs to max! And save the remaining time..!!

    And oh yea.. I should stop visiting thefutureworkplace.com … 😛 !! (lol!)

  3. hey tim, that's a great quote

    i think most people will find that trimming down, even slightly, on superfluous activities such as Ps3 etc. will allow for more time for people to accomplish their goals.

    thanks for reading and commenting!

  4. thanks vinay!

    ya rss feeds can be tough, i mean i do spend a lot of time reading but i try to use what i read and make into something actionable. i'm all for knowledge but it's the things we do that take up our time that DON'T allow us to learn that we can cut out. for example reading 100's of rss feeds that say the same thing, playing video games, etc.

    and saying that you should stop reading this blog is just blasphemy! but don't worry i forgive you, let's just pretend you never said that shall we? 🙂

  5. I constantly run into this with people. I'm often found saying, “What do you mean you don't have time?” Of course, I put zero value on computer games and TV, and I realize that others do value those and don't value some things I do, but regardless, it gets quite annoying when someone says they want to do something, but don't have time. Yeah right. I work full time, play shows with my band five nights/week, and still find time to go to the gym and spend quality time with my friends and family. Maybe, some people just need to be able to say “I don't have time” to make themselves feel better for not getting things done when they really should have?

  6. It definitely does get more challenging when you're married and have children. I often feel like there isn't enough time to do some of the stuff I'd love to do (i.e. blog more, read more, freelance work, socialize more etc.) but there just isn't time after full time work (which I love, BTW), keeping a house (which really only sees the bare necessities accomplished lol), spending time with my kid and my husband, being part of a band, enjoying various sports and going to church every Sunday… it's a balancing act for sure. Could I fit more in? Maybe. Do I want to try? Something would have to be dropped to make that happen. I don't really think so.

  7. hey eric, i put virtually 0 value on t.v/games/etc. as well. you have to get your stuff done first. it's the same with children, they aren't allowed to play games or watch t.v. until they do their hw. same is true for adults, get your stuff done and then relax.

    people may try to make themselves feel better but giving themselves an excuse, but at the end of the day all they do is hurt themselves.

    thanks for reading and commenting eric

  8. hi michelle, i definitely agree with you but at the end of the day the only thing matters is “are you happy?” if the answer to that is “yes” then all is well.

    thanks for reading and commenting

  9. The time thing really annoys me – frequently the people who complain they don't have any time are the ones who are wasting it the most. When I was in college I worked full time and took a full course load. I had great grades and managed to get everything done. I might be studying on Friday night but I had to manage my time. I used to get so annoyed with classmates that would say they didn't have time to write the paper or study for the test – I'd ask, “do you work” and they would say “no” and I would just look at them completely bewildered.

    I also think people waste way too much time on popular culture – I am so “Lost” when people discuss television.

  10. hey kim i couldn't agree more. when i was in college i was always taking above and beyond the course limit, 15 units was full time i always took at least 20 and there was a quarter when i took 30. while i would be studying other people would come ask me to get drunk with them on a wed night. i just never understood how people could waste so much time. sure i had a lot of fun too, but at some point it just has to “click” and you realize that if you don't work hard for your future, nobody else is going to it for you.

    i suppose some people get it and some don't.

    thanks for reading and commenting kim, always good to hear from you!

  11. The time thing really annoys me – frequently the people who complain they don't have any time are the ones who are wasting it the most. When I was in college I worked full time and took a full course load. I had great grades and managed to get everything done. I might be studying on Friday night but I had to manage my time. I used to get so annoyed with classmates that would say they didn't have time to write the paper or study for the test – I'd ask, “do you work” and they would say “no” and I would just look at them completely bewildered.

    I also think people waste way too much time on popular culture – I am so “Lost” when people discuss television.

  12. hey kim i couldn't agree more. when i was in college i was always taking above and beyond the course limit, 15 units was full time i always took at least 20 and there was a quarter when i took 30. while i would be studying other people would come ask me to get drunk with them on a wed night. i just never understood how people could waste so much time. sure i had a lot of fun too, but at some point it just has to “click” and you realize that if you don't work hard for your future, nobody else is going to it for you.

    i suppose some people get it and some don't.

    thanks for reading and commenting kim, always good to hear from you!

  13. It's funny that I probably would have said the exact same thing to someone who came up to me complaining, however I don't realize it's the same with me. Thanks I really needed that! 🙂 My exams are coming up and I've wasted enough time in spite of the fact that I really want to do well. Well, now I start and I hope I keep at it! 🙂

  14. The post of content is very interesting and exciting. I learned a lot from here.The content from simple to complex, so all of you can come in . No matter you want to see what can be found.By the way ,there are some websites is also very wonderful,you can go and see.such as vibram fivefingers kso trek

  15. Uhm… if you don’t hate your job it’s easy to act like you don’t have a lack of free time. Truth is the average full-time employee only has 1 or 2 hours to relax on a workday.

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top