Time, I think is like money. The primary difference is that everyone has a fixed amount whereas our earning potential has some flexibility. There are things we need to spend our money on; food, clothing, rent, bills, etc... What money we have remaining we can spend on the remaining things that we want or in some cases to improve on the niceties of such things we spend our money on. Likewise, we have things we ought to spend our time on; work (be it vocation or school), family, sleep (seriously, we do), etc... We were given 24 hours in a day for a reason, I'm sure that it's not impossible to get by with just that amount, otherwise we'd have more. I think I'm sort of at a loss as to where exactly I was going with this...
It's basically along these lines, we spend on what we find to be important. Generally, we spend in sequence of descending importance, the things that are important get first priority, as our resources are limited, it's uncertain as to when we're going to run out at any given point in time, thus it's only natural that we want to get the most important things out of the way first. So I guess the first point would be to really take time to recognize what you're spending (time and money) on. Maybe I'm just overly-sensitive, but this I feel becomes extraordinarily important especially when it comes to relating with other people. I suppose I wouldn't really think of things this way if I didn't first come up with this perspective on spending, so I only really have myself to blame.
In terms of relationships, we can spend both money and time as well. Generally, spending a ton of money I don't think works very well. Thus, I think more indicative of how seriously a person takes a relationship is the time spent "invested" into the relationship. Naturally, there are things we absolutely have to spend our time on, but I think too often we blur the lines between need and want. Simply put, since we only have 24 hours to the day, at some point in time, something is going to have to give. Oftentimes people forgo meals or sleep in order to do the things they find to be important. What I'm ultimately saying is that we MAKE time for what's important. Isn't that how we do things already? We allocate a certain degree of relative importance to our tasks on hand and then accordingly allocate the time we have available appropriately. While we may not find something as mundane as meeting and catching up with a friend to be "unimportant" it certainly would fall low on a scale of relative importance. Thus the question falls back to one of perspective. We measure not only tasks but also hobbies and even relationships and determine what things are worth spending on.
I suppose the direction I'm going here is a call to introspection, figuring out what really is important. We certainly say a lot of things but is it true? Think about it this way, in the event of a schedule conflict, what takes precedence? While the whole process may be very similar to asking yourself in a schedule conflict, which you would rather do, the difference is there. What takes precedence really is a mirror of what you hold to be important. As calloused as it may sound, if, in the event of a schedule conflict, I found that going to open gym volleyball was more important than meeting my friend for dinner, then the reality of the situation is that I find volleyball to be more important than that dinner date. This isn't to say that I can't schedule things around when I play volleyball (dinner included), but when push comes to shove something has to give. When I cannot accommodate a friend who really wants to meet but can only do so on a specific date, then in some sense, I have put whatever it is I'm doing (volleyball, work, school, other friends, etc...) in front of that friend in terms of importance. We make time for what's important, that's how things are. I understand that we all weigh the varying factors of life differently, some of us think work is more important, some of us friends, some of us school, etc... My thing is this, just take an inventory now and figure out what's important and if that's what you want to be important. When I don't have "enough time" for something, I think it ultimately means this: it's not important enough.
It's basically along these lines, we spend on what we find to be important. Generally, we spend in sequence of descending importance, the things that are important get first priority, as our resources are limited, it's uncertain as to when we're going to run out at any given point in time, thus it's only natural that we want to get the most important things out of the way first. So I guess the first point would be to really take time to recognize what you're spending (time and money) on. Maybe I'm just overly-sensitive, but this I feel becomes extraordinarily important especially when it comes to relating with other people. I suppose I wouldn't really think of things this way if I didn't first come up with this perspective on spending, so I only really have myself to blame.
In terms of relationships, we can spend both money and time as well. Generally, spending a ton of money I don't think works very well. Thus, I think more indicative of how seriously a person takes a relationship is the time spent "invested" into the relationship. Naturally, there are things we absolutely have to spend our time on, but I think too often we blur the lines between need and want. Simply put, since we only have 24 hours to the day, at some point in time, something is going to have to give. Oftentimes people forgo meals or sleep in order to do the things they find to be important. What I'm ultimately saying is that we MAKE time for what's important. Isn't that how we do things already? We allocate a certain degree of relative importance to our tasks on hand and then accordingly allocate the time we have available appropriately. While we may not find something as mundane as meeting and catching up with a friend to be "unimportant" it certainly would fall low on a scale of relative importance. Thus the question falls back to one of perspective. We measure not only tasks but also hobbies and even relationships and determine what things are worth spending on.
I suppose the direction I'm going here is a call to introspection, figuring out what really is important. We certainly say a lot of things but is it true? Think about it this way, in the event of a schedule conflict, what takes precedence? While the whole process may be very similar to asking yourself in a schedule conflict, which you would rather do, the difference is there. What takes precedence really is a mirror of what you hold to be important. As calloused as it may sound, if, in the event of a schedule conflict, I found that going to open gym volleyball was more important than meeting my friend for dinner, then the reality of the situation is that I find volleyball to be more important than that dinner date. This isn't to say that I can't schedule things around when I play volleyball (dinner included), but when push comes to shove something has to give. When I cannot accommodate a friend who really wants to meet but can only do so on a specific date, then in some sense, I have put whatever it is I'm doing (volleyball, work, school, other friends, etc...) in front of that friend in terms of importance. We make time for what's important, that's how things are. I understand that we all weigh the varying factors of life differently, some of us think work is more important, some of us friends, some of us school, etc... My thing is this, just take an inventory now and figure out what's important and if that's what you want to be important. When I don't have "enough time" for something, I think it ultimately means this: it's not important enough.
