Where has the time gone?

Yikes! Awoke this morning with the full realisation that it is already October. Six days on, in fact. Where has the time gone?!

A quick review of the past little while reveals lots of stuff happening, a few distractions, some relaxation, and a great deal of pondering about where the time goes.

Renovations are always a time consumer, and we are right in the throes of those. But they have been going on and on and on for years. You'd think we'd have figured out a way to incorporate them more efficiently and effectively into our lives. Or at least a way to finish them more quickly and save ourselves further angst. Ah, the thought of all that time being directed elsewhere.

Then there are the commitments we can't ignore - the things we promised to attend, want to attend, should attend. The time we spend dealing with people - on the phone, in the street, over breakfast, entrenched in meetings. The accidental things - "It'll only take me a minute", "I suppose I could do that now", "I didn't see that coming!" The pointless things - worrying, being angry, judging. All time munchers.

Jobs are a big sponge. We all have them, in one form or another, and we can easily lose time and ourselves in those. Most of us love our jobs, some hate them, and others do them on the understanding that they are merely a means to an end - something we do so we can get on with the rest of our lives. Whatever your perspective, a great deal of our life time is spent working.

Add into the mix three meals a day, regular cleaning, weekly shopping, getting to and from, sleeping and snooze buttons, pets, kids, schooling, various activities, downtime (movies, TV, reading, conversations), and it's easy to see where the time goes.

And that's not even an exhaustive list!

Taking my own situation into consideration, it all comes down to how I not only allocate my time, but value my time. I'm getting better at the allocation part, but it's the valuing bit that is the real challenge. Especially when it comes to my projects, my needs. Not always easy to make them a priority.

But I can, as long I remember that my stuff is just as important as everyone else's. That I have a choice about what I do when and how I do it. That time will get away from me, no matter how I try to contain it. And that life happens, even if I schedule it out.

So, at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter where the time goes. What does matter is that we have time, and it's completely up to us how we spend it.