photo by christinasnyder

Sometimes a clock just doesn’t seem like the right measure of time.

You’re busy all day, exhausted when you go to sleep, and tired when you wake up — but you still have that niggling feeling that you haven’t done enough.

Where the hell is my time going?

I’ve written about our relationships with time before in “My Time is Not Money.” I believe that semantics can really frame our thinking, so it does make a difference if you think about spending time vs. creating time. In this case, thinking about where your time is going puts you in the passenger seat. It reinforces the feeling that you have no control over your time.

But what if you ask yourself, Where am I giving my time?

I sat down this morning to ask myself this very question. As I listed the activities, ranging from cooking to reading e-mail to creative writing, I realized that my time was not going anywhere — I simply need to be more deliberate in choosing the activities that deserve my time.

Once you reframe the question, it becomes effortless to look at your list and realize where you need to rethink how much you give. Giving your time is just another word for choosing your time, and in the end it all translates into creating your time. It’s a simple, seemingly obvious question that we are sometimes too “busy” to ask ourselves.

So, where are you giving your time?