Optimize, not Maximize, Your Use of Time

If you feel as if time races by too quickly, your quest is to optimize, but not maximize the hours in your day.

You’re not trying to jam pack your time with activity. What would be the point? Having optimal days means there is a balance. Some work and perhaps some leisure, enjoyment of your meals, time for friends, time to reflect, and the ability to get out and stretch or exercise, maybe vigorously.

A sense of the power of nature, the appreciation of higher forces, a sense of being reverent – all of these can go into the optimal day.

Extract the Good

No matter how trying or exhausting some days might be, invariably some good can be extracted from such days. If you are the type who is motivated by quotes and slogans – if they help to lift you when you're down or raise you up further than you are – the Internet provides an infinite number of such resources. Songs, as well, can spur you on. If Don't Worry be Happy works for you, play it. If What a Difference a Day Makes nourishes your soul, listen to it.

Movies can be uplifting as well. On any given day, you can watch inspiring movies. If  Top Gun: Maverick, Chariots of Fire, or Silver Linings Playbook work for you, watch them. Poetry, light verse, stirring novels, and inspiring biographies can make a difference in your day. Access to written works has never been more available than it is today.

Take This Day

At some point in your day, there will be time to drop back and punt. In other words, give yourself permission to relax – to simply be. Reverse the old axiom, “Don't just sit there, do something,” to, “Don't just do something, sit there.”

For however many hours there are left in this day, and however many days you have left on this earth, recognize that they are all gifts to be experienced and enjoyed.

So, take this day, and love it.