The most valuable advice I’ve ever received is “free time is the enemy of progress.” This advice comes from Casey Neistat. Casey is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, and public speaker based in Tribeca, New York City. Casey best exemplifies how, if actually implemented, his advice can make you more productive right away. Casey starts by planning out his every day to each minute detail. In this way, Casey maximizes every minute of his day, and he is seldom not doing something with his time. Lately I’ve come to a realization about myself. I’ve learned that when I am busy, I feel like my best self. This does not mean that I am completely opposed to free time. On the contrary, I actually enjoy some free time. What I am saying, however, is that too much free time is not good for my productivity. When I need to get a homework assignment done, if I know I will have free time later in the week, I will push it off until then. I end up pushing all of my assignments to the one free day, whereas when I am busy everyday, I get my assignments done on time without procrastination.
William Penn once said “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” I am forced to agree with him. It isn’t easy to improve ourselves, even though we are often very aware of our insecurities and vulnerabilities. Time management is a valuable skill that everyone needs, and everyone will use for the rest of their lives.
One thing that I have struggled with in improving my time management is being forced to do things I don’t want to do. This is especially true when I feel like I could be doing something better with my time. The main culprit right now is my math class. I often find myself wondering, “Why I am sitting here? When will I ever use this information?” I start to daydream about all of the better things that I could be doing and experiencing, but instead I am sitting at my desk. It is simply a fact of life that we must do things that we don’t want to do. Even though we can’t change this, we can take greater advantage of the free time that we do have, by managing our time and organizing our lives. The key to all of this is finding a balance. It is within the balance of work and free time that we thrive and real progress is made. Hopefully I will find the right balance for me.