“I didn’t have time”

Before we get into the actual topic, I would like to apologize for not publishing a blog in the past few months. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time.

If I take myself seriously, that probably means I was dead for several months. Fortunately, I was resurrected in time for Easter and can now get straight back to work. The argument has a certain plausibility, at least in terms of the calendar.

However, if I wasn’t dead, which there are certainly signs of, then there is only one less elegant explanation: I was busy. With other things. Things that were obviously more important to me.

The statement “I didn’t have time” is surprisingly stable. It works in both professional and private life, is socially accepted and is rarely seriously questioned. Yet it describes something very precisely, just not what it pretends to. Time is not a scarce commodity that is selectively distributed among different people. It is constant. For everyone. 24/7 for everyone.

What is different are the priorities and the honest, direct approach.

Anyone who says he didn’t have time is basically saying that something else was more important to him. That is neither wrong nor reprehensible. Decisions require exactly that.
It only becomes interesting when these decisions are not made.

Because where priorities are not named, assumptions are made. And assumptions reliably lead to arbitrary results. Ex falso sequitur quodlibet. In a business context, this is unacceptably risky. In a private context, everyone can decide for themselves.

In practice, I regularly encounter this argument. I occasionally have to smile and ask: “Where was it?”

The answer is usually not forthcoming. Perhaps because the actual question is a different one.

I still don’t understand how to manage time. It is completely beyond my control. Even for a measurable curvature, my gravity is not sufficient despite moderate weight gain in old age.

What we manage is not time.
What we manage are decisions.

Top performers do not think in terms of time for tasks. They think in terms of the impact of their decisions over time. And they do not strive to create and manage plans, but to achieve goals.

Or in other words:

Time is not the problem.
Unclear priorities and unclear communication are.

In any case, I am glad to have taken the time to write this text again and grateful that I have any time at all. Carpe diem.