As we get older, time seems to fly past ever more rapidly. The days and weeks just seem to rush past us, giving the illusion that time is going by faster and faster – an experience beautifully portrayed by Roger Waters in the Pink Floyd’s classic “Time”:

“Every day is getting shorter, never seem to find the time,
Plans that either come to nought or half a page of scribbled lines. . . .
And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you”

We have a few tools and tricks we can use in order to make sure that time doesn’t just pass us by without us having achieved what we want in life.

Making sure that we complete the tasks we set ourselves in an efficient and timely manner is one method that will allow us to set aside more “me” time for ourselves.

While we may think of “me” time as strictly personal and something that we use to reward or treat ourselves, i.e.sauna, massage, eating out, etc, this is not necessarily the case. For some, “me” time is spent on developing and enjoying personal relationships with family and friends. Being able to bath the children and read them a bedtime story can be classed as “me” time. Some may see these activities as chores to be done on a daily basis, but if we are able to change our attitude and recognise that we get to spend time with loved ones, the day-to-day childcare activities can count as “me” time. Doing the school run needn’t be a chore – it can be a great opportunity to spend quality time with the children, talking about the coming day, what they hope to do and maybe making plans for later in the evening – these are activities that strengthen personal relationships and add to our quality of life.

Maybe the walk or drive to work, instead of being a mad rush to get there on time, could be seen as time that can be spent listening to some favourite music or, if walking, noticing our surroundings, and the changing seasons.

This scenario takes us nicely in the concept of “living in the moment” – focussing on what we are actually doing, rather than on what we did yesterday or will do today or later in the week. If we can learn to focus our attention on each task or activity that we undertake, instead of rushing to complete a task and move onto the next task, we will find more enjoyment in what we are doing. This concept was described perfectly in 1975 by Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Thich Nhat Hanh in the book The Miracle of Mindfulness. Hahn teaches us to ask whether we are undertaking tasks in order to benefit from the results of the task or in order to undertake the task itself. His well-known example is the task of washing dishes. He asks whether we wash dishes in order to have clean dishes or whether we wash dishes in order to wash dishes. If we are just washing the dishes in order to have clean crockery, then we are rushing the task in order to move on to the next task. If we focus our attention on washing the dishes and live entirely in the moment while doing so, then we can appreciate this task as “me” time. Finding the “me” time in all of our tasks and chores will help us to live in the moment – making each of our infinite number of moments more meaningful and life more enjoyable.

Whatever attitude we adopt towards “me” time – whether we set strict time plans and budget our time accordingly or whether we live in the moment all the time, or whether we use a combination of both – it helps us to focus on just how important our time is. Recognising the importance of our time will help us, especially the entrepreneur, to formulate some sort of policy as to how to get the most out of the time we have available