Make it.
It’s very rare that the big chunk of time you’ve been praying for will finally come. The only option you’ll always have is to make time.
How to Make Time:
Plug your time leaks.
How much time do you spend watching TV or checking Facebook/Reddit/Hacker News/Tumblr/Twitter/Email? More than you should. Acknowledging you spend too much time on a website or watching TV is the first step. The second is altering your environment. If you want to get actual work done, log out of every single account. Put another step in-between getting sucked into wasting time. Or find an app that blocks time wasting sites. This little thing will make it much less likely you’ll head back there.
Also, get a second device that you can waste time on. This will help keep your computer strictly for work with your phone or iPad for wasting time. This is also the advice given to people who have trouble sleeping – get in the habit of only using your bed for sleeping and you’ll have an easier time falling asleep. Your mind will associate your bed only with sleeping.
Pomodoro Technique.
I’ve had some success experimenting with the Pomodoro Technique. Simply set a timer for 25 minutes and work as hard as you can with no distractions for those 25 minutes. Then when time is up, take a 5 minute break to do anything. Knowing that you have to only work 25 minutes before taking a break makes ignoring distractions easier.
Remind yourself of the Sanctity of Time.
This is difficult to do, but if you can take this notion seriously, it will change your life. Too often we act as though we’ll live forever. When you’re in elementary and We comfortably let each day blend into the next without pushing ourselves to do what we really want to do. No one has a better quote bringing home this point than Steve Jobs:
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs
It comes down to legacy. What do you want people to remember you for? People don’t care that you’re busy. Everyone is busy. All we care about is what you do with your short time on this earth.
What option do you have but to make time to make a difference?
“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it,” – Seneca
