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There's a story about a publishing firm that needed to get out of debt, so the president started a competition. She announced a bonus of $1,000 to anyone who could come up with a simple and airtight way to save the firm money. Suggestions could be left covertly with her, so no one had to know who was suggesting what (just in case the proposal involved cutting someone's paycheck). It wasn't long before one young employee left a suggestion with the president, handwritten on folded piece of paper. Once the employee had left her office, the president peeled open the paper and read what was written inside. It was certainly simple—just three words—and definitely airtight. It said: "Eliminate the bonus."
Doesn't it feel like that's the case with a lot of things, where the solution is a symptom of the problem itself? For a more serious example, take time. There appears to be an entire industry around time-saving hacks, with entrepreneurs, life coaches and consultants offering advice on how you can shave a few minutes off your day, which will add up to hours saved each week.
Interestingly, the advice often boils down to some variation on the following: make and keep a schedule; set up a task now so it's easier later; repurpose things for double duty; delegate tasks; and know when to take a break. What's downplayed is the time needed to establish those things: outlining the schedule; the energy put into setting up a task in advance; figuring out what can and can't be repurposed; managing the people you've delegated tasks to; and the effort needed to both take the break instead of powering through a task when we're "so close" to finishing it, as well as getting back to work when the break is over. What might be worse is that the advice never really changes, but our desire to hear it remains. Ultimately, one way to save time might be to stop sinking hours into getting advice about how to do it, and instead spend one's day doing something more practical or fulfilling.
It's not that the advice is bad—it's intuitive, verifiable and reproducible. With practice, all the suggestions can help us keep focus, feel confident and save a little time. It's just that we can get so caught up fretting about time that we lose track of how much of it has passed. But that is the nature of time itself. Time's march doesn't care how we spend it.
Time moves fast because it must encompass everything in the world that has been and will be. Time has much ground to cover, and our desires have little impact on its mission. That knowledge is nothing new; one of the most famous passages from the book of Ecclesiastes reminds of us how widely time spans: from plantings to harvests, from joy to sorrow, from silence to sound.
However, our relationship to time is not as unflinching as time itself. Time works in tandem with space to cover the totality of physical existence, but spirituality gives us tools to transcend that. For example, meditation changes one's perception of time, causing the subjective experience of moments to pass slower, richer and more meaningfully than time untempered by spiritual practice. That demonstrates how developing our transcendent selves helps us rise above the apparent shackles of time and space.
When we live spiritually, we realize that time does not control us. Even if it seems to go fast, we can slow it down through greater attention to spiritual purpose. Meditation, prayer, contemplation, all those are methods that help us organize our lives around what truly matters. Our bodies relax, our minds refocus and our spirits find higher destiny. Further, we decide what to do with our time. We are not beholden to purely physical demands. We pause to appreciate the abstract beauty of the world, or to extend beyond ourselves through actions of understanding and compassion. Spirituality changes our focus for the better. What we do matters. It has a positive impact on the world, and it drives us forward in personal evolution.
To return to Ecclesiastes, we should live our lives to their fullest, taking our entire being and potential into account - to appreciate time in body, mind and soul, to spend time developing and mastering our whole selves. Such action has constructive consequences. Whatever we enact in creation, the bread we throw upon the water, is returned to us in full and more. To be compassionate is to receive kindness. To look more is to see more. To pause is to appreciate life for its bounty, to appreciate ourselves for our possibility and completeness.
Don't get distracted so much by saving time, hoarding it up like a treasure, that you neglect to spend it; that's no better than worrying about time, obsessing over or dreading its passing. As the author of Ecclesiastes noted, the person so caught up in observing the wind and the clouds will never reap or sow. The best use of time is to use it - to unfold, to expand, to transcend, to become.
Let us pray:
Dear God,
Thank You for the gifts of time and experience.
May we embrace life,
May we expand in consciousness, understanding and creativity,
May we quicken in spirit,
And realize the beauty and perfection of our souls.
Help us to use time to its fullest,
To find our truest selves
In Your Eternal Light.
Amen.
"The virtues of life are your heavenly treasure, human character and the rays of your personality. The virtues of life are waiting for you to express and enjoy them as your nature, attributes and ideal. Through every vibration, through every ray of light, the virtues of life are calling your name. Because you are the living replica of the Spirit of Eternity, the truth, beauty and happiness of living are made your own inevitable experiences. Truth, beauty and happiness are awaiting your decision and command. Live the life, speak the word, and enjoy the kingdom of God." - Hanna Jacob Doumette, "Psalms For Today"