How you spend your time is up to nobody but you

Time is the most precious thing we have. It often seems to flash before our eyes, or flies by. Too often, we run out or don’t have enough of it. Or sometimes we waste it, only to later find we wish we had used it more wisely. Usually, we want more of it; we need more of it. It is a valued and cherished commodity: we can use it but cannot own it; we can spend it but cannot keep it. Therefore, any time spent must be time well-spent. But what does that even mean?

It seems that time is only well spent if we struggle to find enough of it. It is often said that our society suffers from a constant need to be busy in order to add worth and purpose to our lives. Not having enough time to do things becomes our proof for leading a busy life; a life with significance and value. How can our lives possible be hollow and meaningless if we are relentlessly struggling to find enough time to juggle a never-ending array of tasks and commitments? And when we do have time, when are not occupied to the point of having run out of it, we often feel guilty, as if we are misusing and throwing it away.

This continuous strive towards a busy and demanding life is demonstrated by the way in which we voluntarily impose pressure upon ourselves. We do not allow ourselves to be idle even when prescribed to do so. Our holidays are used as a way to augment this image of productiveness: we look for volunteer work, internships, holiday jobs, au-pair work…all to ensure we are spending our time well; that we are using every single minute of every single day wisely.

But it is because we regard time as something so precious that we should spend it doing the things we truly want to. Our time is our own – only we have the right to decide how we use it and what truly counts as “time well spent”. What is more, the ways in which we decide to spend our time should be for us, not for anybody else.

So if you’re looking for that summer job, do it because you want to. If you’re applying for that internship, do it because you have a true passion and interest for it. Not because everybody else is. Or because anybody else wants you to. Or because you think that spending your summer doing something else would be a waste of time. Because time well spent can also mean time spent in the company of others, or simply time dedicated to sitting in front of the TV, savouring each blissful second of relaxation.

Above all, time should be used doing the things you truly enjoy because once you’ve lost it, you never get it back. So savour it, share it with those you love, and choose how you would like to use it yourself. Only you get to determine what is time well spent and what isn’t. And that’s not being selfish; that’s just what using time wisely really means.