A Binary Approach to Becoming Better
Time will never stop moving forward so we need to spend it wisely.
The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.
Stephen Covey
There are countless cool, meaningful, and important things we can do with our lives, but more often than not, we let life pass us by.
Instead of intentionally allocating our time and energy to what we care about, we end up distracted by everyday obligations and wasting time on things that seem important but don’t contribute to any meaningful progress.
In the reactive hustle and bustle of our busy lives, we hardly think as we move from one thing to the next. Instead of carefully planning how to spend our time, we rush from one obligation to the next trying to keep up with everything on our plate.
When we find ourselves in a rare moment of quiet free time, we frantically search for a podcast, video, or any endless stream content to occupy our minds before we have the chance to think for ourselves.
Time is a River
We all have plenty of time to make meaningful progress on the things we care about, but if we’re not intentional, we waste our time on trivial distractions.
Time is like a river; whether we like it or not, we’re all floating down the same river at the same speed.
If we don’t take control, we’re at the mercy of the river’s current, and external forces control how we move through our lives.
If we take the time and effort to paddle to the bank of the river and survey what’s next, we can chart a path forward and control our movement down the river.
Our problem is not that we’re floating down a river that’s faster or busier than everyone else’s. It’s the way we choose to travel down the river that makes all the difference.
The Binary of Becoming Better
To take control of our time we can review everything we do and make a binary choice: is this worthwhile or not?
If it is, we should keep doing it. If it’s not, we should stop doing it.
At face value, it’s extremely simple. Only do things that are worthwhile and do nothing that isn’t worth the time or effort.
In practice, it’s incredibly difficult to row our boat over to the side of the rushing river and make time to decide if everything we’re doing is worthwhile or not.
If we do make the time and look at everything through a binary lens, it’s remarkable how much we do that doesn’t serve a purpose. We do things just to do things. Doing things that negatively impact what we care about is worse, but it’s usually obvious.
It’s the things we do that aren’t obviously hurtful that are the most insidious. “Going with the flow” will waste our lives and squander our potential. If we don’t stop to consider what’s worthwhile and what’s not, we won’t realize it’s happening until it’s too late.
Even if we don’t adhere to what we deem worthwhile 100% of the time, stopping frequently to think critically and label everything we’re doing as worthwhile or not will have a huge impact on our lives.
No matter what we do time will continue to move forward and obligations and distractions will be thrust in front of us.
If we consider everything through a binary lens, we can make time for things we care about and create meaningful progress on worthwhile pursuits.
Prompts
When you feel like you’re getting swept up in a busy and reactive season of life, how can you make time to reflect on where you’re allocating your energy?
Look back on the last week. What did you do that worth was worthwhile? What did you do that was not?
What do you spend the most time on that isn’t worthwhile? How can you remove that from your life?
Deep Dive
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
A fresh take on time management that encourages readers to focus on what’s important instead of getting as much done as they can.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin