Making time our best friend

​For the longest time, I resisted being planful about my days. I resisted calendars and checklists and anything that tried to force me to commit to using a certain block of time for a pre-identified certain activity.

I refused to be a slave to the clock. I refused to believe I couldn't freewheel my way through life.

Then one day I realized: I AM a slave to the clock.

Seth Godin says, "you can watch the clock, but if you do, it's watching you."

One day I realized I'd gotten into a staring match with the clock, and in many ways, the clock was winning. Because when we find ourselves focused on the clock - what time is lunch and what time does this day end and what time can I go to bed - when we simply focus on the clock advancing, we are doing little to advance ourselves.

One of the last things I do before I go to bed at night is look at my calendar the next day. I don't look at it to make sure I have every block of time filled, I look at it to make sure there are blocks of time devoted to the things that make me feel whole - that make me feel like I'm moving forward.

I look at it to make sure there is at least fifteen minutes devoted to reading, writing, running and whatever personal project I'm working on. I literally steal at least one hour away - often more - from staring at the clock to schedule meetings with myself. Meetings with me to better me.

Meetings with me become part of my calendar the next day. And trust me, seeing a meeting with ME on my calendar is more life-giving than many of the meetings I see on the schedule.

When we find ourselves staring at the clock, or even staring at a scrolling screen while the clock is staring at us, chances are we don't have things in our lives that are important enough to us to make time our friend.

Because when we are doing the things we've committed to using time to do - things that make us whole and keep us moving forward - time is our best friend.

But when we find ourselves staring at the clock, and years down the road find ourselves wondering where time went, and we find ourselves knowing there was so much more we could have done with that time, we discover time has been an enemy.

The good news is, if you're reading this, you still have a chance to make time your friend. You still have a chance to fill in a couple of calendar blocks today with things you're going to do to advance YOU.

You still have a chance at the end of this day to look back and say, I made friends with time today.

And at the end of the day, there may not be a better friend to have.