Making time for self-improvement

Posted on February 26, 2008
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Creative Commons License photo credit: GiuliagasMost of us lead very busy lives. We’ve filled our time with work, play, education and waste.

I know what it means to be busy. I have a full-time job as a probation officer. I carry a full load at night school for a masters program. And I am trying to develop a blog and freelance writing career. Not to mention my wife wants my attention as well.

As busy as I am, I really have no one to blame but myself. I chose to work for the income and security it provides. I chose to go to school for the future income and desire for self-employment. I chose to write and create a blog for my own personal satisfaction.

And when I finally have a chance to relax, I usually choose to sit in front of the television. Ok, at least I’ve cut back on that one. The point I am making is we have all made choices to do activities that fill our available time.

Do we need self-improvement?

Each of us is growing day by day. We gradually become a new person, little by little. Some people have had great insight in our growth and learned lessons that the rest of us find very valuable. Many of them have written a book to pass on these lessons to those who need to learn them. Authors like Steven Covey and Anthony Robbins come to mind as examples.

(I’m going to assume you see the value in a self-improvement and want to read one. The following suggestions can be used for any self-improvement technique for which you want to find time to do.)

There are hundreds and hundreds of self-improvement books available. While I can’t recommend you try to read ALL of them, you should read a few. Some would say you should read a new book a month. A week if you can fit it in.

That’s the key phrase, if you can fit it in. We are so busy with the things we have chosen, we don’t have time to fit much else in our lives.

So where do make the time?

I’m sure you’ve heard of the rocks and sand philosophy. It goes like this: pretend an empty jar is your available time for the coming week. You have a variety of tasks, some are needs, some are wants. These tasks are represented by rocks, pebbles, and sand. The size of the task represents how much time the task will take and it’s importance to you. Therefore, a larger rock will take much more time and energy than a grain of sand.

When you are planning how you spend your time in the coming week, you have to decide what you really want or need to do and put those rocks in first. Next come the lesser important pebbles, followed by handful of minute sand tasks.

There is always, always, always, a big handful of sand that will be poured in your jar. The sand comes from family, friends, work, etc. It is important to put the things that important to you, the big rocks, in the jar first. Once the sand goes in, you can’t fit anything else in there.

For me, television is the sand that used to fill my jar. Once I finished homework or other house hold chores, I would sit on the couch and start surfing. Now, I’ve cut back on that. My time for blogging is a pebble I’ve forced into the jar to make sure I have time for writing.

Now another pebble, a self-improvement book sits next to the jar and I wonder when I will find the time to read?

Evaluate your time

What do you do with your day? You probably work. That takes up time in your day. You may go to school, you may have friends, a spouse, a significant other, etc. Each of these things take up time, but usually you can find a way to take some back.

For me, I find that I have time at lunch. I work seven minutes from my house, so I can easily slip out, go home and spend 30 minutes reading before fixing a sandwich and heading back. In the evenings, I can stop watching so much television (at least until Heroes comes back! Then I’m glued to the TV for that hour.).

Where can you find time? What do you do that’s just busy time that wouldn’t kill you if you stopped doing it?

Planning

Going back to the big rocks and sand philosophy, once you find something you want to do, whether its read, write, or any other self-improvement activity, those things become you big rocks. When you plan you upcoming week, you have to put the big rocks in first to make sure you take the time to do it.

What’s that? You don’t plan your week ahead of time?

That, my friend, means you have no rocks or pebbles. Your jar is full of sand. You have no control over what is happening to you. Get out a planner, or even just a piece of paper, and start setting aside time for self-improvement. It will be worth it in the end.

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