Focus on Life™

We all know people who are constantly late. Likewise we can point people who are always too busy or ‘doing it later’, which seldom occurs. Funnily enough we still all have the same 24 hours per day. That’s something we have in common—no exceptions.

Busyness is an excuse. There is always the same amount of time for everyone. It is just a matter how we use the time available to us. When someone tells you that they don’t have the time right now or they are ‘too busy’ what they really are saying is that they have other priorities that are more important at that moment. It is always about priorities and never about the time itself. When you understand this point it can improve your life significantly. Are you appreciating your current moment the best possible way for you and for others? If not then you better consider more carefully your time management.

How much time do you spend talking about doing things—instead of doing them? Explaining and describing your tasks and future undertakings will not get them done. If you are truly occupied you do not have the time to talk about doing something, you simply are carrying them out. Multitasking is also often a good time waster. What might seem to be an efficient way to do things may in actuality result many things done poorly. A focused and intensive effort often enables you to get things swiftly over with and to move on for your other priorities. Don’t take a short concentration span and efficiency as interchangeable terms—they are not. Starting lots of things and finishing only a few is not a good track record for getting things done. You also are wasting a lot of energy for the unfinished business that keeps you occupied until you give them up as wasted efforts.

How to avoid piling up plenty of work for later days that never seem to arrive? Act at once. When you read your email do something about it immediately. Don’t postpone and read it twice or even a third time before doing the required actions, even if it just means simply deleting the mail. When you learn to do things properly at once you save a lot of time for your other things. Also carrying out tasks as they arrive makes it is easier to handle your workload. Seldom we expect to have ‘more time’ available for us in the future than currently.

And the most important time saver is a very simple but difficult concept called: “no”. If you don’t like something indicate it straight away. Delaying the moment of truth does not help anyone. It gets the easier the more accustomed you become to signal early on your opinions about something. Is there any better way to save time than by refusing to engage in something that is not for you in the first place? Time management is easy, learning the lessons may take some time. It is all about how we appreciate and value our efforts and of others—by prioritising.

Our greatest excuse is time. Either we do not have enough of
it or we have too much of it. Still, we can only live now, for-
ever. Future is only an illusion we project based on our experi-
ences and understanding. Past is a regenerated memory and
experience collection we re-produce according to our current
understanding and point of view. All this can only happen
right now. And still they are all only pure image forms—
nothing else.

We continuously fool ourselves. We play this game by say-
ing to ourselves that we will do this or that and gain or
progress in a specific manner in the future. But all this is done
in a way that implicitly says we are currently lacking some-
thing and will do the hard part later. Time is our excuse: “I
need time to develop/study and so on.” This would be fine if
we really would deliver on what we promised. Unfortunately,
we often change our mind along the process. It is more
important (i.e., easier) to be in the constant mode of changing
than actually achieving or being.

We escape the current moment almost all the time. We are
not happy about how we are at the moment and, therefore, we
like to comfort ourselves by saying that this is not the real me
but wait an X amount of time, and I will be this. This game is
endless. Either we crave the past or envision an imaginary
dream world of the future.

When do we have time to actually be? Being requires that
we also see and hear in the moment. It requires unbiased,
objective observation and facing reality as it is, right now. No
bias toward the past or the future—only the bare truth. Have
you ever realized who you really are or appear to be?

Time is a great paradox. We are almost never in the time.
Being in the moment is almost nonexistent for us. When do
we have the time?

Time is a concept that has many purposes for us. It enables
us to escape from the current moment. We can either wander
around our past or dream about the future, but still we have to
perform all these activities in the now time. Sometimes time
is precious for us. At other times, we are bored and cannot
wait to skip the moment. Why does time sometimes fly and
at other times crawl?

It seems that we are so busy trying to do something in the
future or worrying about the past that we simply do not have
“time” for the moment. Why do we always have to do some-
thing—can we not just enjoy the moment and take the future
as it comes? How many of us can plan the future and then
implement it as we have figured it out? Is there any bigger
waste of time than worrying or dreaming about things that
might occur but most likely will not happen the way we have
planned?

Usually we would prefer to be anywhere but where we are.
This applies to being in the moment as well. We always have
to achieve or gain something. And for those things, we need
time. There is never enough time to do all the things we can
imagine. But do we really have to use all our energy to be like
zombies who are not much present in the current moment?

Only a few human beings can live in the moment. It is easy
to notice these people; they are very intense and present in the
moment. One can get their undivided attention and their
presence is often very penetrating. They are more than
focused—they purely are, fully. Being able to keep this state
every minute, hour, and time of the day requires practice. It
means that we are not busy to worry about the past or plan
the future. We concentrate on every moment as it comes and
appreciate it as if it were to be our last one. And how do you
know that this is not your final day of existence? Would you
use the time some other way than the way you are using it
right now? The challenge is to live every moment as if it is all
we have left. This way, there is no time to be wasted—we only
experience and live intensively.