WASTING TIME


I haven’t had time to read a book lately.  In fact, it’s probably been a month or so since I last read anything other than what I write and, for me, that’s an awfully long time.  So lately, I’ve been thinking about the management of my time, as in, there’s not enough of it, and why does it fly by so quickly?   I’ve also been wondering if there’s some kind of New Year’s resolution I should have made a few months back that would have improved the way I spend my time. 

So, I have this friend who reads Tarot cards.  I’m not saying that I believe in them.  They’re interesting, probably open to all kinds of interpretations.  But I like to claim that I’m open-minded, even if I really don’t know if what’s in my cards holds any merit or not.  The thing is, the very first card he turns up tells me I’m wasting time.  Me, wasting time?  Not a chance, I tell him.  I run a small family business that employs about a half-dozen people, I write, I do the domestics (although not as much as I should), I’m involved in the lives of my family.  Where, in that, am I wasting time?  I challenged my friend to find the answer to that in his cards, and all he told me was that I was the only one who could really know the answer. 

It took me two days of semi-indignation before I started to apply some logical thinking to the subject because, truth is, I’d really like to find a little more time in my day.  And if those cards did know something I didn’t...

Anyway, I stepped back, took a good, hard look at what I do any given day, and why it keeps me so busy.  Doing this, I was fully aware that the circumstances of my life aren’t going to change.  It is what it is and no matter how many different ways I look at things, I still have a business to run, books to write, domestics to cope with, lives to be involved with.  These things, in a large part, define who I am.  But I don’t involve myself with them every hour of the day.  Or at least, I try not to.  So, where is this wasted time, if not in my ordinary routine?  Other than reducing my normal sleep time from four hours down to three, I still couldn’t find it.  Yet those darn cards said I’m wasting time...

Then it dawned on me, that it’s not the actual minutes of the hour or the hours of the day I’m wasting.  It’s putting off the things I want to do, some new directions I want to take, different books I want to write, as well as read.  My husband and I had decided to take a quick trip a while ago, to a quaint little town in southern Indiana, spend the night, have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants then look at lights and beautiful architecture.  Then, at the last minute I decided we had too many things to do, that we couldn’t go.  So, we didn’t.  Now, it’s a few months later, and yes, we got all those things accomplished - the things that took priority over our trip. But we didn’t see the lights, like we didn’t get to see them last year or the year before when we’d planned the very same trip. Too busy then, too.




When I started to think about how I waste time I realized that spending two days away from the regular routine, and going away with my husband, wasn’t wasting time.  Cancelling that opportunity was, though.  In my life, it’s the missed opportunities that are the time I waste.

Time’s precious.  There really isn’t enough of it.  I discovered that recently, with a critical illness that almost killed me.  I came face-to-face with my own mortality and what made me the saddest was knowing how much I’d put off for another day.  Days that I might not have ahead of me.  Luckily, I didn’t die.  But what I did was think about all the things I’d put off in my life, and the list was so long.  And disheartening.  We’re all guilty of that, though.  We all put off so many things we want to do... taking those new directions, reading or writing a different kind of book.  I know I do.  My mother did, too.  She was an amazing woman...a concert pianist with so much talent.  Yet, my mother wasted so much of her life never stepping outside her routines to do those things she wanted to do.  Her list was full of somedays, but never anything on it for today.  Sadly, she never made it to someday.  So today, I have a full schedule.  As I write this, it’s going on to noon, and I’ve already been up working 5 hours.  I have at least another 6 or so hours ahead of me for work, all of it scheduled.  But I downloaded a book on my Kindle this morning (Mercy by Daniel Palmer, who shares credits with his late dad, Michael Palmer) and it would be such a waste if I didn’t read it.  So, that’s what I’m going to do for the next 2 hours.  Put the work aside, tuck the schedule away, and read!  And no, in my busy schedule that’s not wasting time.  Putting off reading it would be the waste.

No matter if it’s climbing a mountain, taking a boat ride down the river or reading a book, treat yourself soon to something you’ve been putting off because if you don’t, you really are wasting precious time, whether or not it’s written in your cards. 

Benjamin Franklin once said: “If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.”

My wish for you is a life filled with opportunities too good to waste. 

Before I go... My next book Doctor, Mommy,...Wife? will be out July 1, 2016, from Harlequin.  Check my website for more details:www.DianneDrake.com Or, look me up on Facebook: www.Facebook/com/DianneDrakeAuthor



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