What’s worth your time?

How do you decide where to invest your time?

One of the wonderful human “features” is Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is “a feeling of energetic interest in a particular subject or activity and an eagerness to be involved in it” (cf. Cambridge Dictionary). In times in which we look for a positive outlook on life, are being told to be positive or optimistic, enthusiasm comes along as a false friend. It is the “friend” that says “yes” for every interesting opportunity, whenever a friend asks for help or when invitations arrive. The wish to be involved, the speed we have in reacting as well as the ease of dealing with choices available, leaves a lot of space for such enthusiasm. A similar enthusiasm can be seen when it is about encouraging others or showing appreciation for their projects and ideas.

As we live in times in which everyone seems to be busy or has a lot to do, it has become easy to excuse oneself from following up and do it with a “no time” excuse.

The thing is, this leads to frustration. There are more and more things which remain undone, have been added to the bucket list or collect the dust on one of the last todo-lists.

Instead of earning the satisfaction of an achieved project, we put ourselves at risk of being overwhelmed, there is too much to do within too little time. The existing satisfaction is bound to become invisible with such frustration.

Seeing this mechanism leads to a new interpretation of the time spent with this steady trickle of little decisions. Instead of jumping into an enthusiastic yes we have to excuse later on, we can invest one or two minutes into feeling the enthusiasm, connecting with the time actually available and remembering priorities. Doing this leads into a different time management and more satisfaction, if and only if, we are capable to take a bit of time to decide if the enthusiasm we’ve felt is worth the time it will cost.