Brad isn't clever. 30 minutes. Unfiltered. Every day. Rinse. Repeat.

Agh, time off is no fun.

I prioritized a bit to finish a short but fantastic book: Rework. The founders of 37signals decided to condense many of their tried-and-true methods and philosophies into a collection of bite-sized essays. Each essay is accompanied with a simple illustration and the entire package looks phenomenal. It only took me two hours to read through the book, and that was with a bit of interruption. Regardless, there is one important lesson I’d like to focus on today: making time for stuff. I’ve written about it before, but it helps to reiterate and draw additional focus to the topic.

More than a few passages in Rework left me happy that successful individuals felt the same way I did. One of their key points in an essay is something I’ve strongly believed in: everyone has time to do something, it’s just a matter of whether or not they choose to do it.

I’m sure I tell myself every now and then that I simply don’t have time to go the gym or to run some seemingly simple errands. I delay. I stall. Ninety nine percent of the time, I DO have time. I may not have time to do everything all in one day, but I can prioritize to make any of those items on my list a possibility.

I guess I feel the same way with some relationships with people. Truth be told, if they want to spend time with you, they will find a way to make time. If they give you this lame “I”m really busy this week” excuse and don’t provide some counteroffer to hang out in the future, they probably don’t want to see you. With some people, I don’t think it’s a conscious choice to spite someone by saying “I don’t have time to hang out with you”, but it’s clearly an issue of personal preference. Often, these same people who tell you they are incredibly busy will sleep in on the weekends, watch TV, and/or relax a bit.

We all feel busy when a lot happens in our lives, but we also find ways to make time to see our friends and colleagues. Sometimes, we work harder and more efficiently on a project to free up some time in the near future. Sometimes, we see our friends with knowledge that we will be up later that night working or up early the next morning.

If somebody really wants to see you, he or she will find a way. It’s that simple.

Never tell yourself “I don’t have enough time to do X.” Instead, question how you are spending your time. Look for ways to cut down on activities that have less priority and focus more on the things you feel are most important.

I want to write every single day. In a perfect world, I will be shortly. I keep playing silly games with myself where I try to schedule my writing late at night, when I know I’ll be incredibly tired. When faced with the prospect of 6-8 hours of sleep or 5-7, I tend to pick the earlier of the two. I’d really like to get a consistent amount of sleep each night, so I am also trying to focus on that right now.

Unfortunately, sleep is the one thing I gamble away the most. I put 90% of the other things I want to do in life ahead of sleep, and that has long term effects which aren’t any fun. I wind up being less efficient down the line, and it’s something I need to correct. Rather than sacrificing 30 minutes of sleep time for writing, I should be sacrificing 30 minutes of time spent catching up on TV shows or clearing my RSS feeds.

What will YOU do to make time for yourself? It’s harder than it seems. There are tons of things I want done by the end of the week, but I know most of those won’t happen. As a result, I’ve got to curate that list of items and select a choice few I can focus on. Once I clear that list, then I can go back and look for other items to take care of.

I think people stress out a lot when they try and juggle too many options at once. It’s overwhelming to have your hand in 35 different projects. You’ll neglect most of them, forget some even existed and then split your focus horribly between the one or two you are trying to accomplish at any one given time.

Let go. Put some of those items on a distant backburner and learn to be okay with that.

It’s not always fun, but it is the best thing to do. It’s as far of a situation as one can hope for.

Right now, my eyelids are starting to droop. This isn’t what I want to have happening always for these writing exercises. I can’t write at maximum efficiency when part of my brain is tired. It causes minor havoc. It causes my brain to wander and guess how much time is left out of my original 31 minutes (the answer was 7:19).

These last seven minutes can be crucial. It’s around when I feel like I’ve totally exhausted the casual discussion of a subject yet am still forced to write. Words have to fill this screen because I want 30 minutes of uninterrupted writing, even when inspiration doesn’t strike.

The more I read up on sitcom writing, the more it seems like it would be an incredible opportunity. I’ve got to go for it. I’ve got to put an appropriate amount of focus on it and learn how to balance that with 7-8 hours of sleep each night. It’s not an easy task, especially when living with a law student who encourages me to stay up late to watch TV with him.

Perhaps the main difference between winners and losers is what happens in these metaphorical seven minutes. More work clearly needs to be done, but there’s no road map - only pitch black. Do you forge ahead and do your best? Do you contemplate and reflect on the past? Do you sit there unsure of where to go?

I used to reflect on the past OFTEN. It was a bit addicting to just look back into my head and find all the happy moments. I have developed a mindful approach to live in the moment over the last few years, and I find that to be extremely helpful. Memories and life experiences are grand, but they aren’t worth abandoning action in the status quo. Your memories are not tangible. They are in the past. Why worry about mistakes made or celebrate past triumphs when you can go LIVE now?

This is time I need to pour into writing.