Project 366 / 319 - Time: concept and audit

I think everyone needs to begin to understand the concept of time a lot better. If you realise that you can use time to your advantage, to enjoy specifics more, to maximise and improve routine and to set goals then you'll be achieving so much more.

I'll give a couple of examples. Look at Christmas - if you actually begun to realise that you've only got 10, 20 or 30 more Christmases left wouldn't you approach each one differently? Wouldn't you begin to endeavour to enjoy each one that much more? Well apply the same to everything. Life is short.

Next take exercise. People look at any form of exercise and think "I can't do that" because they're looking at what they want to be able to do, not what they can do right now. Take running - instead of trying to run a half marathon next month, run 1 mile 3 times per week. The next week run 1.5 miles 3 times per week. The next week run 2 miles 3 times per week and slowly build the mileage up increasing just 0.5 mile every week. In 6 months you'll be running a half marathon.

Can't do chin ups at the gym? Do one per day for a week. Then two every day the following week and add one extra rep per week. You'll build strength and stamina faster than you realise and within 3 months you'll be up to 10/20 reps easily and beginning to add weighted resistance.

And this works for anything. Focus your attention and utilise your time.

I want to learn more about my DSLR. To date I’ve only ever really used it for a point and click and got some pretty good results. Now I want to take it to the next level so I’ve decided that from next year I’m going to take half an hour out of my day each working day to learn something and another half an hour to practice it.

People say "oh but I don't have time". Break your day down, look at how you're spending your time. Be critical of how you spend your time, analyse it. Are you spending half an hour mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube every day? Are you spending your lunch break reading a trashy magazine? Are your evenings a routine of dinner and 90 minutes of TV?

The truth is we can all extract more from our day. It’s just a question of auditing ourselves and making some tough decisions about what we really want out of this life.