The Year of Protecting My Time

The other week I was listening to Rob Dyrdek on the Ed Mylett podcast.

The title of the episode is How To Protect and Respect Your Time.

This podcast episode has had a profound impact on me, and it’s become the foundation for my focus for 2023.

Originally my goal for 2023 was to say no to anything new.

No new projects.

No volunteering for anything.

No impulsively deciding to start throwing a ton of time and effort into every new idea that pops into my head.

I set this as my goal because I don’t have time to do the things that I need and want to do right now. Actually, I haven’t had enough time to do the things I want and need to do since I can remember.

Then I listened to this podcast episode, and it became clear that saying no to new stuff was really just one of the things I needed to do in order to gain control of my time.

Most of us think we need to learn how to manage our time better, but what we really need to do is manage ourselves better.

Sometimes it takes a little while to be able to see what you are doing to yourself. Sometimes the right podcast (or book or quote or Facebook post or blog post or person) comes along at just the right time, when you are ready to actually hear what you need to hear.

I realize saying no to new things is a component of a bigger goal:

To protect my time.

I have never protected my time.

I have spent years of my life making decisions out of the fear of not being needed, self-imposed obligation and more recently, out of extreme guilt.

I’ve been giving away my most valuable resource to other people who don’t deserve it or don’t appreciate it.

I’ve been investing time and energy into things that don’t give me a return on my investment.

Well, they give me a return, but not the return that I want.

I want to invest my time and energy into things that help me grow, things I like doing, things that help me create the life I want for myself and my family, and things that allow me to connect with and be present with the people I love.

I also want to learn how to get really good at optimizing my time.

2023 is going to be the year of delegation, analysis of exactly what I spend my time on, developing an understanding of exactly how long it takes me to do things, and developing systems that enable me to use my time effectively and put my energy into the things that only I can do and I want to do.

It’s going to be the year of making decisions based on how much of my energy they require, and if I’m going to get a return on my investment that I actually want.

Time is the only decision that you can’t do over.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

You can always change your mind or make a different decision.

You can always make more money.

But once you’ve “spent” your time, you can never get it back.

And that’s why 2023 – for me – is the Year Of Protecting My Time.