“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” –Sydney J. Harris
We live in such a hectic world today that we are always in danger of having the events in our lives take control of our lives. No matter what our individual circumstances, most of us feel that there are more things that need to be done than there is time in which to do them. We race the clock in trying to get “everything” done, but, no matter how hard we try, the clock always wins. Some of us become so frustrated with daily life that we make ourselves miserable and jeopardize our health and well being. This is a terrible mistake that none of us need to make.
Most of us do not have nearly as much time as we would like to have. As a result, we have to make choices between alternative uses of our limited time. If we are having difficulty getting “everything” done, we are either trying to do too much or we are not using our time efficiently. Some of us are very hard taskmasters on ourselves. We set unreasonable goals and then make ourselves miserable trying to reach them.
We need to set priorities for the use of our time. We should first do the things that absolutely “have to be done.” Next, we should do those things that “should” be done. Then come the things that we very much “want” to do. Everything else is optional. There are only 24 hours in a day. If we sleep eight hours, that only leaves 16 hours. If we have an eight-hour job, then we only have eight hours that we really have much control over.
In setting priorities, many people put rest and relaxation at the bottom of the priority list and thus find that they usually “don’t have time” for it. That is a terrible mistake that can become fatal. How many people have died of strokes or heart attacks because they did not have time for rest and relaxation? If you don’t want to add yourself to that number, you will make time for rest and relaxation, and it will become one of your top priorities on a daily basis. Everybody needs some down time for maintenance of their bodies and souls, and we should give a high priority to it in budgeting our time.
We can make a good analogy between the tasks we perform each day and the individual grains of sand in an hourglass. If the grains of sand are allowed to flow through the narrow part of the hourglass at their own pace, the hourglass can last almost forever. However, if we try to force the sand through at a faster pace, the glass will shatter and the fragile hourglass will be destroyed. Similarly, if we do our individual tasks at a normal pace we will get through the day OK. But, if we set our goals too high, and try to accomplish more tasks than we are capable of doing per day, it is just a matter of time until our bodies will break just as surely as the hourglass breaks. We need to slow down in life and allocate sufficient time for rest and relaxation. If we don’t, sooner or later, our bodies will break, and we will have no more time for anything.
Think about it.
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Copyright 2025
Allen W. Smith
