I’m finding myself moving away from the discussion of “time” and moving towards priority.   When it comes to working with my team or managing my schedule, I’m starting to avoid saying I don’t have time.  The truth of the matter is, it’s not an issue of time, but priority.

Time is the most equitable gift in the world.  We are all given the exact amount.  No one gets more than anyone else.  Old, young, hard working, lazy, black, white, Christian, Jewish, smart, dumb, geek, or jock, we all get the same amount of time.  None of us get’s any more or less time than the next person.   When you look at it like that our struggle to get things done isn’t an issue of time but an issue of priority.

We get to choose what we prioritize.  We get to determine how we spend our time based on that priority.   When someone tells us to get something done by a certain time, they aren’t taking time from us, but rather demanding we prioritize something other than what we want to prioritize.   Focusing on time makes us a victim.  We can’t control time therefore we blame it on the fact we don’t have enough.

When we look at time as an issue of priority then we have control.   We get to decide what our priorities are and those that are most important will always get done with plenty of time to spare.

The next time you say you don’t have time, is it really an issue of time or did you prioritize Monday Night Football over that quarterly report? Did you really not have enough time or did your prioritize an extra hour of sleep?  Did you really not have enough time or did you prioritize family night?  Did you really not have enough time or did you prioritize skiing with the girls?   It’s OK to prioritize something else, just know that’s what you did and stop blaming the lack of time   Time has nothing to do with it.

It’s not time we wrestle with.  It’s priority and we get to control that.