Believe me. The irony is not lost on me that I’m finally getting around to writing this blog post after first coming up with the idea weeks ago. And tentatively scheduling it in my content calendar for two or three weeks ago. Then, pushing it a few days later, a week later, and now to today. There’s just not enough time, so something had to give. And the thing that gave was writing this blog post on Beyond the Rhetoric.

Not Enough Time or Not Enough Me?

The largely (exclusively?) self-imposed guilt is so overwhelming, especially when I recognize that practically nobody is going to notice that I’ve gone more than a week without blogging on here. This whole notion of “not enough time” is such a cruel deception, because it leads us to think that if we just had more time, we’d get everything done.

Way back in 2008, I pondered what it’d be like if we had 25 hours in a day. How would we spend that “extra” hour? As much as we’d like to think we’d be so much more productive, I’m confident that we wouldn’t. Nature abhors a vacuum and we’d probably fill that “empty” hour with just as much frivolity and procrastination as we treat the other 24 hours in the day.

Deluding ourselves into thinking that there’s just not enough hours in the day is exactly that: a delusion.

Wanna See Me Juggle? On a Unicycle? That’s on Fire?

While not technically true from a scientific perspective, pragmatically we can treat the passage of time as a relative constant. You’ve got 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year. And it’s up to you to choose how you’re going to spend that time.

You can do anything.
It’s just that you can’t do everything at the same time.

And I’m struggling as much as anyone else to internalize this simple, yet hard life lesson. I thought I was okay with learning how to fit work into my life schedule, but it really hasn’t gotten any easier.

Picture the Overflowing Pitcher

Shifting priorities means I need to reprioritize how I spend my time, consciously or unconsciously. And as I gain several new responsibilities, voluntarily or otherwise, I deride and belittle myself over all the things that I used to do (or do more), but not anymore.

I often remind myself that I…

  • Used to blog seven times a week, but it’s hard to blog once a week these days.
  • Used to post a new vlog every week, but I haven’t done a proper vlog in months.
  • Used to follow hockey and football religiously, but I haven’t watched a game in years.
  • Used to watch TV and play video games for hours on end, but I barely get in an hour a day now, if at all.

But, the reality is that I’ve simply shifted my priorities in terms of how I choose to spend my time.

  • I treat my Instagram posts and Reels almost like a microblog. So, I’m still creating content, just in a different format on a different platform.
  • I didn’t read much for years after university, but now I finish 50 books or more a year.
  • I’m making much more of an effort to hit my daily step goal, which has been good for both my physical and mental health.
  • I’ve gained a lot of responsibility as a parent to two young children, along with all the frustrations and rewards that go with it.

The Minute Differences in Hour Lives

Cringy dad jokes aside, I think we all could benefit from discarding the mindset of “not enough time.” Until we can get our hands on the Eye of Agamotto, we won’t be able to control the passage of time. We’ve got the same 24 hours in a day that we’ve always had and there’s nothing we can really do about that. So, let’s focus instead on what we can do. We can choose to prioritize the things that are more important to us.

And, perhaps more importantly, we can be more forgiving of ourselves about the things we choose not to do. Don’t be cruel. You’re doing just fine.