Time Is Money

A lot of people don't understand that: your time is your money. It's one thing that you alone have, and can freely give up for pretty much any cause at all. It can be taken from you, but for the most part, you volunteer it. And it's as valuable, if not more valuable, than your money.

Just because someone asks you to do something that doesn't involve any money on your part, doesn't mean it's free. It still uses some of your valuable resources, like time. That's something I didn't really understand for a long time. I just said 'yes' to pretty much anything, and got myself wrapped up in a million different projects, many of which didn't really help me get where I wanted to get.

I've still got a million different things I'm doing, but now they're a bit more focused, and I'm still not doing as much as I could be doing. There are some areas where I don't have much of a choice, like school, but even there I have some choice. I choose my major, what classes I want, etc., and anything that's not gonna help me get where I'm going, I don't take. That's what's great about college: you can really tailor it to what you want. And it's designed to help get you where you want to go...for the most part.

But being spread too thin is also a problem. It impairs the quality of your work, and takes away from the enjoyment of what you do. When you're too worried about finishing one thing and moving onto the next, and you're completely stressed, it's almost impossible to enjoy the work you're doing. In my personal experience, a lot of what I do involves writing of one kind or another. Writing is something I absolutely love doing (as I've previously expressed). But when I have too many things I have to write, I don't enjoy doing it; I just have to rapid-fire move from one thing to the next. But when I can just sit down and work on it and write, not only is it ten times better, it's ten times more enjoyable.

I've kind of touched on this a little bit in a previous post, but I felt like expanding on it, 'cause it's important to learn. It's something I've been learning (the hard way). If you try and do everything for everyone, you're never gonna get around to your own stuff. And if you never say no, you're gonna be hurting people more than helping, because you'll be wrapped up in everything you have to do, that you won't be able to give their project the level of attention it needs.

Just a couple thoughts on the matter. Like I said, I've been learning this stuff through experience. It's good stuff to know.

-Micah McFarland