Where Does All the Time Go?

I have come to respect budgets.

A budget is nothing more or less than a plan, normally a money plan.  If you think you will have $1,000 coming in this month, and want your outgo to equal your income, then you can list the categories within which you plan to spend your $1,000.  Say $200 for food, $200 for car payments, $100 for recreation, etc.

Many of us lack the time or talent to either create a money budget (plan), or to follow one if we have it.

I don’t have the time or talent to create or follow a food budget.  For the past two years I have paid a professional to write up a food plan for me, detailing exactly what I will eat for the seven day period starting on Friday of each week.  For almost a year I paid attention – not strict attention, but attention – to my food budget.

Today is Saturday morning.  I have been on vacation for a week.  I have entirely ignored the food budget in my shirt pocket.  I have also ignored a scale.  My belt seems to fit about as well as it did a week ago, though I assume that I have probably gained a few pounds.  When I paid careful attention for the first year of the plan I lost 55 pounds, the pain in my right knee disappeared, and the aching at the base of my spine was considerably reduced.  I can now walk more than a few steps without having to sit.  I paid attention to my food budget because I wanted a result, which I have now partly attained, so I am not as motivated as I once was.

But this blog is not primarily about a money plan or food plan.  It is about a far more vital subject – our time.

Like you, I don’t know how much time I will have available today.  It is now four thirty in the morning, so I can reasonably assume that I will have another 19-1/2 hours today.  That is not certain, of course.  It never is.  An adage, old because it still rings true, says:  there is nothing so certain as death, nothing so uncertain as the hour.

I am not addicted to creating or following a plan.  Not a money plan, not a food plan, and certainly not a time plan.  I find, however, that when I do follow a plan I move more effectively toward a goal, be it saving money to buy a car, losing weight, or falling into bed at night with a sense of accomplishment, even if the accomplishment was to have a whole lot of fun and create pleasant memories.

Today my time budget has two appointments – fishing with my son from 8:30 am until 12:30 pm, and an 80 minute massage with my wife at 4:15 pm.  That’s it.  I assume I will use some of my time for a shower or two, a meal or three, and a nap since I woke up much earlier than usual and will probably be tired in the afternoon.

I am suggesting that each of us might think about how we spend our precious minutes, whether planned or not.  I conclude that:

I only have today.

It’s up to me to make the most of it.

Alan