Photograph Credit: Flickr (a_s_h.)

Confession time . . .  I get clumsy when I am in a hurry. It’s true! You would think that I would learn to either schedule a few extra minutes or forget that “one more thing” I can squeeze into 5 extra minutes. But, no, I have not learned.

Just this week, I finished cleaning up the breakfast dishes and decided to do “one more thing” before leaving the house. That “one more thing” was sweetening the brewed pitcher of tea, simple task with no complicated steps.

However, I got in a hurry.

As I poured the full sugar scoop into the pitcher, I hit the edge and dropped the scoop into the tea. My “one more thing” then turned into a project. To correct my error, I had to use a few more minutes of my time to:

• Retrieve the scoop,
• Wash the scoop,
• Dry the scoop, and
• Continue to add sugar to the tea pitcher.

By the time I finished sweetening the tea, I had spent more than 5 minutes. The extra time was gone, and I had exerted more energy than needed. In my effort to maximize my time, I hurried up and wasted time.

Though I will probably repeat this mistake again, I hope to remind myself to slow down and relax during the extra minutes rather than wasting precious time and energy. Using time wisely is a constant set of choices. With good intentions, I still often fail, learn from those mistakes, and choose a better option next time.

Question: What obstacles hinder you from using time wisely?