Michael Banovsky

What I’ve realized, in a fit of wonderment at how people like Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk and Jason Fried can get so much done in a day, is that there’s enough time.

There is always enough time. An abundance, actually.

At first, it’s hard to believe. With nearly everything we use hard-wired to leave the echo of time—date stamps, cable TV schedules, expiry dates—life is reassuringly simple.

Alarm, 7AM. Milk expires tomorrow. Finish breakfast before 7.45AM train. Arrive at work before 9AM. Go to meeting. Lunch. Go to meeting. Replace expired milk. Watch show at 7PM. Sleep until alarm at 7AM. Repeat.

Karl Pilkington once said something to the effect of, “If we had no calendars, you couldn’t put anything off. Things would just get done.”

That’s what I must work toward. “Now” is not a time, it’s when things need to be done.

How drowning and insignificant we are in the annals of time.

When I read about scientists discovering a new newt, black hole or positing an idea of another universe, I immediately think: “Well, how are we discovering something now if this thing probably existed before calendars and clocks?”

It’s “now” I’d like to talk about.

If something is really important to you, don’t you drop everything and deal with it immediately? A death in the family, a flat tire, a dirty diaper?

Now.

If that’s the case, and if the really important things in life happen independent of fixed time, then setting a due date for something is really just a way of telling yourself it’s not important. Why? Because you won’t be doing it now, but later.

When we try and do only things that are important to us, more will get done. We’ll have more capacity for the things we love. And we’ll finally be free of time.

There is no time in now, only is.