Why You Never Have Enough Time and How to Overcome It

Are you always wishing you had more time available to you? The truth is, you probably have plenty of time. You’re just not focused, and you’re not using your time wisely. 

Everyone receives 24 hours each day. There’s a reason why some people are accomplishing much more than you are and are still able to be on time for all of their commitments. 

These reasons could be why you never have enough time: 

1. You fail to prioritize. What’s the most important activity you must do in order for you to accomplish your objective? If you’re not asking yourself this question regularly, you’re not getting the most bang for your time and effort. It’s easy to stay very busy but fail to accomplish much. 

• Ask yourself, “What is the most important thing I need to accomplish?”
• Then ask yourself, “What is the best way for me to accomplish that?” 

2. You waste time. This could be due to procrastination. It could be due to inefficient work habits. 

• Make the choice to avoid wasting time, period.

3. You’re disorganized. When you’re not organized, everything takes longer than it should. You spend time looking for a pair of clean socks, your car keys, searching for files on your computer, and trying to pull off things at the last minute. 

• Disorganized people never seem to have enough time, and they’re frequently late with their work. 

• Make an effort to organize your life and yourself. There are many resources dedicated to organization. Use them. 

4. You have too many distractions in your life. It could be low-quality social interactions, TV, needlepoint, your baseball card collection, noisy kids, clutter, or your prize-winning rose bushes. Having too many things in your life takes too much time. 

• Remove the things from your life that are unnecessary. Minimize the distractions you can’t remove, like your noisy children! 

5. You don’t start your day early enough. Most of us do little in the evening. That time is largely wasted just lying around the house or staring at your phone. That’s why so many highly successful people skip the evening hours by going to bed and waking up extra early. 

• Your brain tends to shut down by the late afternoon, whether you started your day at 9:00AM or 5:00AM. Give yourself a few extra productive hours by getting up early and going to bed early. 

6. You fail to track your time. Track how you spend your time each day. Switch tasks when appropriate so everything receives the time it requires. 

• Keep a simple journal and make a record each hour of how you spent the last 60 minutes. 

7. You don’t have a plan for your day. Your day shouldn’t be random or determined on the fly. To get the most out of your time, it’s necessary to have a plan for the day. 

• Make a detailed plan for your day before you go to bed. Spend your day executing that plan as well as you can. 

8. You’re not focused. You’ve been told to “focus” or “concentrate” since you started kindergarten. Too bad the education system never taught you how. If you sit down to work on something for an hour, how many minutes is your attention truly focused on that task? 

• You probably have plenty of time to accomplish everything you need to do each day, but you just need to focus at a higher level. Practice meditation. Practice focusing on whatever it is you’re doing. Focus is built through practice. 

Make the most of your time by prioritizing, removing distractions, and learning how to focus. You have all the time you need, if you’re willing to make the necessary adjustments to yourself and your life. 

You have 24 hours each day. Ensure that you’re using them wisely!