If there's one phrase I would like to eradicate from our language it
    is this.

  From [1]Patrick Rhone

  Tl;dr: We all work with the same 24 hour day. The difference? How we
  choose to spend that day, how many we have, and how our use aligns with
  what we truly value.

  Your friends and mine, [2]the Stoics, have strong opinions on this
  topic.

  To start, [3]Seneca's [4]many writings [[5]US] [[6]JP-en] [[7]JP-ja] go
  deeper than I do here :

    "Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life.
    Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day … The
    one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never
    short of time."

  Those who have a hard time disconnecting, this message is perhaps for
  you.

  I love this quote:

    "We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of
    wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the
    toughest misers."

  The sentiment is so true. I know I spend too much time debating over
  small things that end up costing me more in the time I spent and the
  other things I could have done. It was [8]Robert Burton who said,

    "[9]Penny wise and pound foolish"

  In [10]Meditations, [11]Marcus Aurelius [[12]US] [[13]JP-en]
  [[14]JP-ja] has many things to say on the subject:

    "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."
    (10.16)

  What is he saying? Basically, stop wasting time thinking about being a
  better person and just start being better. I think this touches on the
  idea of [15]perfect being the enemy of the good enough.

  Likewise:

    "Be not a man of superfluous words or superfluous deeds." (3.5)

  We all, myself included, go on and on. Get to the point so as not to
  waste your or others' time.

  Elsewhere he says:

    "Away with your books! Be no longer drawn aside by them: it is not
    allowed." (2.2)

  Essentially I read this as an admonition against workaholism, unless
  you're like [16]Jack Donaghy.: "I wish I'd worked more," he confessed,
  near-deathbed.

  And again,

    "But away with your thirst for books, that you may die not murmuring
    but with good grace" (2.3)

  Most importantly, while striving to make the most of your time make
  sure you get some quality "Me" time:

    "Do the external things which befall you distract you? Give yourself
    leisure to learn something new and good, and cease to be whirled
    around. But then you must also avoid being carried about the other
    way. For those too are triflers who have wearied themselves in life
    by their activity, and yet have no object to which to direct every
    movement, and, in a word, all their thoughts." (2.7)

  Everyone needs time away from the distractions of responsibility. The
  goal is that they are valuable to you, relatively healthy, and give a
  true break.

  It's astounding how our brains process data even at rest and store the
  data for later. For example, I know a high-powered executive who
  travels the world working on multiple large client accounts. He spends
  his "Me" time watching reality TV on airplanes and in hotels. Even
  though he says he "switches [his] brain off," he passively learned
  about human behavior and popular culture. It was a happy accident his
  "guilty" (to him) downtime pleasure provided him unexpected benefits.

  As Frank Herbert said in Dune [[17]US] [[18]JP-en] [[19]JP-ja]:

    "Every experience carries its lesson."

  Thoughts?

Other References:

  Various bits above are from [20]Donald Robertson.

  Various references are from the [21]Stanford Encyclopedia of
  Philosophy.
  Also on:

  [22]Twitter [23]Twitter
    __________________________________________________________________

  My original entry is here: [24]I Don't Have the Time. It posted Wed, 18
  Apr 2018 22:00:51 +0000.
  Filed under: personal,

References

  1. http://www.patrickrhone.net/i-dont-have-the-time/
  2. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/
  3. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/
  4. https://archive.org/search.php?query=seneca&and[]=mediatype:
  5. https://amzn.to/2EUPZgb
  6. https://www.amazon.co.jp/Letters-Stoic-Penguin-Classics-L210/dp/0140442103/ref=sr_1_1?s=english-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524050746&sr=1-1&keywords=seneca
  7. https://www.amazon.co.jp/セネカ哲学全集〈5〉倫理書簡集-I-兼利-琢也/dp/4000926357/ref=pd_sbs_14_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2F9BWTPRNGE0RM8QWH64
  8. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Burton
  9. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/penny+wise+and+pound+foolish
 10. https://archive.org/search.php?query=meditations marcus
 11. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/
 12. https://amzn.to/2qL4EFI
 13. https://www.amazon.co.jp/Thoughts-Marcus-Aurelius-English-Emperor-ebook/dp/B0082XKGGU/ref=sr_1_2_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524050446&sr=8-2&keywords=marcus+meditations
 14. https://www.amazon.co.jp/マルクス・アウレリウス「自省録」-講談社学術文庫-M-アウレリウス/dp/4061597493/ref=pd_sbs_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2F9BWTPRNGE0RM8QWH64
 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good
 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Donaghy
 17. https://amzn.to/2EUxVTi
 18. https://www.amazon.co.jp/Dune-Sequence-Frank-Herbert-ebook/dp/B004KA9UXO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1524048797&sr=8-3&keywords=dune
 19. https://www.amazon.co.jp/デューン-砂の惑星〔新訳版〕-ハヤカワ文庫SF-フランク-ハーバート/dp/4150120498/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1524048797&sr=8-6&keywords=dune
 20. https://donaldrobertson.name/2017/08/10/stoics-should-avoid-trivial-debates/
 21. https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html
 22. https://twitter.com/prjorgensen/status/986727603758403585
 23. https://twitter.com/TokyoGringo/status/986726465180971008
 24. https://www.prjorgensen.com/?p=1005

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