TIME IS LIFE
By Elena Greco
Typical reading time: 5 minutes
May 14, 2022 (updated May 8, 2024)
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
~ Leo Tolstoy, WAR AND PEACE
Time is life. What else could it be?
The way we fill our minutes and hours and days is called living.
Time is life. And how we use time is how we live life.
Questions arise: Are we using time as well as we could? Do we value our time? Do we value the time of others? Does how we’re spending our time reflect who we want to be? Is how we’re spending our time constructing the life that we truly want to have?
Time is money.
~ Benjamin Franklin
My time in the legal world trained me well to respect others’ time. For legal professionals, time is money. Literally. They bill by the hour. They’re expected to fill their hours with billable work in order to be seen as valuable to the firm. They don’t appreciate emails that do not need to be sent or calls that contain non-essential words because those things waste their time and therefore cost them money.
I don’t appreciate those things either. And yet every day I receive emails that did not need to be sent, that are a reflex rather than a thoughtful communication, that are sent because the sender did not read my email completely or did not follow the instructions that they might have received. These things are disrespectful of me and of my time. (And also of theirs; more on that below.) Yet even after I point this out and request that no unnecessary emails be sent, it continues. Why do you suppose people do this?
I’m not sure why anyone would assume that my time is not valuable. Although I’ve retired from the legal IT world (my survival job for thirty-seven years), I do still work at my life-long professions of music, writing and coaching, and my time is worth a certain dollar amount. But more important to me, as I advance in years, every day and every minute of my life now has incredible value to me, and value perhaps in terms of the legacy I might or might not leave. These are my last minutes on earth. No more of the “I’ll live forever” attitude that dominated my earlier life lives in me now. As the top of the hourglass of life empties, seemingly more rapidly with each day, every minute has greater value. I don’t give away those minutes lightly. And I’m extremely aware of those minutes.
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
~ Bruce Lee
I suspect that people are disrespectful of my time, not because they wish me harm (although perhaps some do), but because they are disrespectful of their own time. They do not understand the value of time and are perhaps unaware that time is their life currency, and mine. It simply does not penetrate them that in taking my time, they are taking away part of my life. And in doing so, they’re taking part of their own, as well.
The way we spend our time defines who we are.
~ Jonathan Estrin
Sometimes communication is not about the words. Meeting with someone, saying, “Hi! How are you?” often means something other than the words themselves. It often means, Here, have a small hug in the form of a fairly meaningless collection of words, ones we have agreed upon to substitute for a pat on the back. And those particular unnecessary words are in fact necessary for the value that they impart, the emotional value that they contain.
But many of the words which we direct toward another person are quite the opposite of that verbal hug, whether in person or in writing. They are an infliction of a mindless assault on the other person’s time and energy.
One of the reasons for the mindlessness can be that the perpetrator is having a kneejerk reaction. There is no waiting, no deliberate pause, no momentary contemplation of the best next step, no consideration of the effect the communication might have upon the recipient and their time (life). This can be and often is part of a compulsive personality, to be sure, but I believe it’s also partly due to the reaction that corporate media has carefully attempted to cultivate in us. See something, react to it! Read something, react to it! Next link! The bigger and more frequent the reactions, the better media and commerce do. They have created a science of marketing that specializes in manipulating the reactions of consumers—that is, us. They thrive on our kneejerk reactions.
There is a way out of this mindless assault on each other of endless unnecessary emails and reflexive texts. Contemplation and awareness are the key here. As soon as we are aware of our reactive tendencies, they become less out of our control.
Watch, the next time you receive an email that makes you want to grab the mouse, type furiously and hit send. Watch that compulsive reaction. Relax. Really relax. Take a nice relaxed breath, followed by a nice long exhale. Now think about the message you just received. How does it make you feel? Is there any anxiety there? Does that anxiety want you to send out a response immediately without thinking it through? Will sending that mindless response make you feel better? Will it improve the situation? Might it be beneficial to leave it for a half hour and come back to it with a new perspective?
With most compulsions, there is a slight bit of relief after indulging the compulsion, but it quickly dissipates, leaving more anxiety in its wake. There is no real satisfaction. And the same thing happens a moment after you respond reflexively when you receive the next email and have the next reaction.
So the next time you have that seemingly uncontrollable feeling that you must immediately send a response, just … wait. That’s all. Wait. Do the steps above. See if you don’t experience life a bit more richly.
There is of course the opposite response, which is just as wasteful of the other person’s time, and that is not responding. If the sender inquires if you’re available at a certain time this week, and you don’t respond for three days, you have caused the other person to (1) calendar a follow-up to their email to try again to get a response from you, (2) take time out of their day to do that follow-up, (3) spend more time trying to figure out what to do if they can’t get a response from you, and (4) probably experience some aggravation at having to work so hard to get a simple response that should have been received within twenty-four hours if you had good manners. By not responding, you have taken more of their time. You have taken more of their life.
Something I’ve often found challenging is scheduling a group of people, such as a rehearsal that involves multiple musicians and a venue, particularly when further actions that affect that group of people depend on the response of one person. In that case, not responding to a scheduling request inconveniences and wastes the time (life) of not only the sender but of the other people involved and gums up the progress of the whole production.
Time is life. I recommend that the next time you’re about to waste someone else’s time in some way, substitute the word life for time. By sending an unnecessary email to them, you’re wasting their life. By not responding in a timely manner, you’re wasting their life. It just might help you value the power of your own words and actions in a way you hadn’t considered. Because that time is your life, too.
The next time you do something of this nature reflexively, or are tempted to say or do things that don’t need to be said or done, ask yourself if you’re wasting your life. Every unnecessary action—and that includes communication—is a waste of your life.
The way that we spend our time determines the quality of our lives. It determines what our life stands for, what we achieve in this life, and whether we experience fulfillment.
Are you aware of how many hours you spend each month on truly meaningful work—that is, work that is meaningful to you? Are you aware of how many hours you spend each month on mundane tasks or errands that are potentially unnecessary or could be done by someone else? Do you know how many hours you spend watching television? On quality family time? On work that is meaningful and contributes to your life or that of others?
Mind you, I’m not saying we don’t need time to relax, enjoy mindless diversions and have fun. Those things are necessary for our health. There’s nothing wrong with goofing off a bit; idle time has value, too. But most of us waste enormous amounts of time, not on recreation or rest, but on things that don’t contribute to us at all—over-consumption of social media, news and games immediately comes to mind, as does endless planning or talking about action you’ll take, rather than taking the action.
We can never get back the minutes we waste. We can’t buy more time. If someone you knew frequently threw some dollar bills idly down the trash chute, you might think that was wasteful. You might even find the idea shocking. But they can make some more money. It can be replenished.
You cannot make some more time. When you spend it, it is gone forever. One hour wasted is one less hour you have on this earth.
Does the time you spent yesterday contribute to your life? To the world? Was it all spent on something meaningful or necessary or enjoyable to you? How much of it was spent unnecessarily or frittered away?
I’m all for taking breaks, taking vacations, spending time in nature, watching a little television, chatting with friends, and having fun. But please don’t let time go by without considering its value. Be aware of how you spend your time. It is our most valuable asset. So much time is lost to us every single day. We can never get it back. Make your time count.
Time is life. Also ….
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
~ Colette
Why does Colette say that the time we spend with cats is never wasted? Because that time is spent being fully aware of another, being in touch with love, and being in touch with our true selves (because cats just have that effect). Most importantly, our minds automatically stop chattering around cats.
A cat would never send an email.
Photo by Manja Vitolic on Unsplash
Time Is Life
TIME IS LIFE
By Elena Greco
Typical reading time: 5 minutes
May 14, 2022 (updated May 8, 2024)
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
~ Leo Tolstoy, WAR AND PEACE
Time is life. What else could it be?
The way we fill our minutes and hours and days is called living.
Time is life. And how we use time is how we live life.
Questions arise: Are we using time as well as we could? Do we value our time? Do we value the time of others? Does how we’re spending our time reflect who we want to be? Is how we’re spending our time constructing the life that we truly want to have?
Time is money.
~ Benjamin Franklin
My time in the legal world trained me well to respect others’ time. For legal professionals, time is money. Literally. They bill by the hour. They’re expected to fill their hours with billable work in order to be seen as valuable to the firm. They don’t appreciate emails that do not need to be sent or calls that contain non-essential words because those things waste their time and therefore cost them money.
I don’t appreciate those things either. And yet every day I receive emails that did not need to be sent, that are a reflex rather than a thoughtful communication, that are sent because the sender did not read my email completely or did not follow the instructions that they might have received. These things are disrespectful of me and of my time. (And also of theirs; more on that below.) Yet even after I point this out and request that no unnecessary emails be sent, it continues. Why do you suppose people do this?
I’m not sure why anyone would assume that my time is not valuable. Although I’ve retired from the legal IT world (my survival job for thirty-seven years), I do still work at my life-long professions of music, writing and coaching, and my time is worth a certain dollar amount. But more important to me, as I advance in years, every day and every minute of my life now has incredible value to me, and value perhaps in terms of the legacy I might or might not leave. These are my last minutes on earth. No more of the “I’ll live forever” attitude that dominated my earlier life lives in me now. As the top of the hourglass of life empties, seemingly more rapidly with each day, every minute has greater value. I don’t give away those minutes lightly. And I’m extremely aware of those minutes.
If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
~ Bruce Lee
I suspect that people are disrespectful of my time, not because they wish me harm (although perhaps some do), but because they are disrespectful of their own time. They do not understand the value of time and are perhaps unaware that time is their life currency, and mine. It simply does not penetrate them that in taking my time, they are taking away part of my life. And in doing so, they’re taking part of their own, as well.
The way we spend our time defines who we are.
~ Jonathan Estrin
Sometimes communication is not about the words. Meeting with someone, saying, “Hi! How are you?” often means something other than the words themselves. It often means, Here, have a small hug in the form of a fairly meaningless collection of words, ones we have agreed upon to substitute for a pat on the back. And those particular unnecessary words are in fact necessary for the value that they impart, the emotional value that they contain.
But many of the words which we direct toward another person are quite the opposite of that verbal hug, whether in person or in writing. They are an infliction of a mindless assault on the other person’s time and energy.
One of the reasons for the mindlessness can be that the perpetrator is having a kneejerk reaction. There is no waiting, no deliberate pause, no momentary contemplation of the best next step, no consideration of the effect the communication might have upon the recipient and their time (life). This can be and often is part of a compulsive personality, to be sure, but I believe it’s also partly due to the reaction that corporate media has carefully attempted to cultivate in us. See something, react to it! Read something, react to it! Next link! The bigger and more frequent the reactions, the better media and commerce do. They have created a science of marketing that specializes in manipulating the reactions of consumers—that is, us. They thrive on our kneejerk reactions.
There is a way out of this mindless assault on each other of endless unnecessary emails and reflexive texts. Contemplation and awareness are the key here. As soon as we are aware of our reactive tendencies, they become less out of our control.
Watch, the next time you receive an email that makes you want to grab the mouse, type furiously and hit send. Watch that compulsive reaction. Relax. Really relax. Take a nice relaxed breath, followed by a nice long exhale. Now think about the message you just received. How does it make you feel? Is there any anxiety there? Does that anxiety want you to send out a response immediately without thinking it through? Will sending that mindless response make you feel better? Will it improve the situation? Might it be beneficial to leave it for a half hour and come back to it with a new perspective?
With most compulsions, there is a slight bit of relief after indulging the compulsion, but it quickly dissipates, leaving more anxiety in its wake. There is no real satisfaction. And the same thing happens a moment after you respond reflexively when you receive the next email and have the next reaction.
So the next time you have that seemingly uncontrollable feeling that you must immediately send a response, just … wait. That’s all. Wait. Do the steps above. See if you don’t experience life a bit more richly.
There is of course the opposite response, which is just as wasteful of the other person’s time, and that is not responding. If the sender inquires if you’re available at a certain time this week, and you don’t respond for three days, you have caused the other person to (1) calendar a follow-up to their email to try again to get a response from you, (2) take time out of their day to do that follow-up, (3) spend more time trying to figure out what to do if they can’t get a response from you, and (4) probably experience some aggravation at having to work so hard to get a simple response that should have been received within twenty-four hours if you had good manners. By not responding, you have taken more of their time. You have taken more of their life.
Something I’ve often found challenging is scheduling a group of people, such as a rehearsal that involves multiple musicians and a venue, particularly when further actions that affect that group of people depend on the response of one person. In that case, not responding to a scheduling request inconveniences and wastes the time (life) of not only the sender but of the other people involved and gums up the progress of the whole production.
Time is life. I recommend that the next time you’re about to waste someone else’s time in some way, substitute the word life for time. By sending an unnecessary email to them, you’re wasting their life. By not responding in a timely manner, you’re wasting their life. It just might help you value the power of your own words and actions in a way you hadn’t considered. Because that time is your life, too.
The next time you do something of this nature reflexively, or are tempted to say or do things that don’t need to be said or done, ask yourself if you’re wasting your life. Every unnecessary action—and that includes communication—is a waste of your life.
The way that we spend our time determines the quality of our lives. It determines what our life stands for, what we achieve in this life, and whether we experience fulfillment.
Are you aware of how many hours you spend each month on truly meaningful work—that is, work that is meaningful to you? Are you aware of how many hours you spend each month on mundane tasks or errands that are potentially unnecessary or could be done by someone else? Do you know how many hours you spend watching television? On quality family time? On work that is meaningful and contributes to your life or that of others?
Mind you, I’m not saying we don’t need time to relax, enjoy mindless diversions and have fun. Those things are necessary for our health. There’s nothing wrong with goofing off a bit; idle time has value, too. But most of us waste enormous amounts of time, not on recreation or rest, but on things that don’t contribute to us at all—over-consumption of social media, news and games immediately comes to mind, as does endless planning or talking about action you’ll take, rather than taking the action.
We can never get back the minutes we waste. We can’t buy more time. If someone you knew frequently threw some dollar bills idly down the trash chute, you might think that was wasteful. You might even find the idea shocking. But they can make some more money. It can be replenished.
You cannot make some more time. When you spend it, it is gone forever. One hour wasted is one less hour you have on this earth.
Does the time you spent yesterday contribute to your life? To the world? Was it all spent on something meaningful or necessary or enjoyable to you? How much of it was spent unnecessarily or frittered away?
I’m all for taking breaks, taking vacations, spending time in nature, watching a little television, chatting with friends, and having fun. But please don’t let time go by without considering its value. Be aware of how you spend your time. It is our most valuable asset. So much time is lost to us every single day. We can never get it back. Make your time count.
Time is life. Also ….
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
~ Colette
Why does Colette say that the time we spend with cats is never wasted? Because that time is spent being fully aware of another, being in touch with love, and being in touch with our true selves (because cats just have that effect). Most importantly, our minds automatically stop chattering around cats.
A cat would never send an email.
Photo by Manja Vitolic on Unsplash