I had been thinking a good goal for me this year was to be more productive. But that is vague and not really the problem. My real issue is in how I choose to spend my time. You see, I donate a lot of my time to YouTube. I am responsible for so much watch time for various channels, you would think they are paying me (they are not) or at the very least it is memorable, quality content (not always). When I finally pull myself out of the hypnosis that keeps me watching, I often ask myself, “Why did I do that?”
If you are so inclined, you can come up with reasons having to do with the addictive nature of social media, the way the human brain is wired, or anything having to do with psychology and/or sociology. But I don’t think that’s necessary. The real issue is how I value my time. Join me for my metaphor.
Imagine my time is a wallet, and I am choosing to spend it freely. Whenever I make the choice to spend time on activity, I am giving it a value with that amount of time. “Ah yes, you, random video, are worth 9 minutes and 28 seconds of time.” And then proceed to pay out of my time wallet. Making the choice to spend time watching that video is me saying that it is more valuable to me than any other activity I could be doing. Thinking about it that way gives me pause. Why do I essentially value these mindless tasks more than “productive work”?
- Convenience. I can be easily entertained. They have already done the work.
- A little fear. I can’t be assured that my effort will be worth it when I try something difficult. That is I can’t be certain things will work out the way I want. But if I sit and watch YouTube, I can be guaranteed to have used my time to watch YouTube.
As much as I wanted to jump full heartedly into to being really meticulous with tracking my time and making to-do lists, it seems like my time management is really going to depend more on setting up my values. If I can get straight on what I truly value and how certain tasks better align with those values, I can more confidently overcome my obstacles of comfort seeking and fear.
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I by no means will be perfect at this. I can’t even guarantee I will remember to do this all the time, but I know this exercise will help me shift the way I work for the better.
A Wren Says 