Are You Proud of How You’re Spending Your Time?
When you feel like you’re just one e-mail away from failure at work, it can seem ludicrous to take your eyes off of what you believe absolutely needs to get done to consider what you might regret in the future. The amount of demands coming at you feels so crushing and so unavoidable that you justify a missed soccer game here, a canceled dinner with a friend there, and a never-used gym membership over there, with the thought, I was just doing what it takes to get everything done.
Sometimes that thought is accurate when you have a truly urgent situation or a special event like preparing for an annual conference. However, in my experience as a time coach and trainer, I’ve found that reasoning is often a pretty façade for not knowing how to work smarter — so you end up working harder and sacrificing what’s important to you in the process. But when you neglect to consider common time regrets, you not only put a lien on your future happiness, but you can also decrease your effectiveness in and enjoyment of the present.
