Time is the most precious resource any of us have, and with every passing year I find myself becoming more disciplined in how I spend mine. I recently started tracking my time after attending a presentation at work, on Productivity. The speaker claimed that we are productive for fewer than 3 hours in every day, and I didn’t believe her. It’s lucky that I’m a bit of a data junkie because I started tracking my time – both work and personal – to see how that might be used better. I’m more careless with this resource than I thought, so I decided to look at the areas where I saw myself being least productive.
I opened a Facebook account primarily to stay in touch with friends scattered around the globe, but nothing in life is static. As the tool has evolved, as my friends and interests have grown, so has my use of the tool. Convincing myself that I am now using Facebook to learn, and to grow – and not simply to stay in touch – I was sure I was applying suitable filters, and indulging in sufficient self-restraint, to limit myself to the levels of downtime that we all need. I wasn’t. Now I’m not spending 72 hours locked in a dark room clicking from cat to dessert, to dancing child, to “the 23 best ever videos of piglets eating cake”, and then on to “the 15 most ridiculously awesome pictures of dog slobber on rear car passenger windows that look like Jesus”, etc. But I am definitely wasteful, and seeing the data helps.
However, there are gems in the noise of cats and food. A recent post quoting Hugh Laurie stuck in my mind, and I see the same message again, in a video on productivity that I found. Almost immediately after the Hugh Laurie post was an article shared by Terri Lynn, on how massage therapists should use social media. Both are responsible for the re-ignition of this blog – something I have wanted to launch for sometime, but whose commencement constantly falters.
The amalgam of the above two posts is that one should not wait until one is “ready”, and that doing something consistently often will get me where I want to be faster than simply contemplating a start (presumably while I look at lists of amusingly shaped vegetables on Facebook). Neither of these two important points for best use of our time are epiphanies, but we aren’t always so ready to act on what we know, and knowledge without action is… (well, pick your favorite famous ending to that line).
And so I am beginning this blog. Again. Now. Before I feel ready. Furthermore, I will add to it 3 times a week. Oh dear. (And oh the irony of sharing this blog post via Facebook!)
