Happy New Year reader!
I mentioned in my previous post that rather than making resolutions I must keep then feel a sense of epic fail when I don’t, this year I’m making a list of things I will try to do/be better at.

First and rather topically this week already I am going to try to actually reply to people WHEN they send me messages not two or three days/weeks or occasionally months later. I’ve been a bit rubbish at that this year, often for good reasons/excuses or because of good intentions like checking dates or times with confirmation emails but that’s not the point sorry everyone!

Next up on the list this year I will try to live in credit with my time, and not in a debt of time - run ahead of schedule and not behind. A lot of the things I have heard about financial debt in the last year apply to time also. The idea that if you are in debt it costs you more (you pay for what you bought 10x over), you don't have the means to bless others, it causes you a lot of stress trying to make the "repayments", that debt for the sake of consumption (having what you want now or sometimes things you don’t even really want but society convinces you that you should want, things you don't need, and as a result being unable to afford things of value later) and not investment (education, a home) is wrong.

Similarly with time - if you squander your time you will find you do not ever "save" enough time to afford the things that matter - you find you never get around to doing the things you wanted to achieve. Staying up a little too late is a debt - and the next day everything will take longer if you are tired, and the time it takes you to recover and catch up is a repayment many times more than the "loan" of time that you took. Feeling a bit too tired is stressful, and you don't enjoy the things you were looking forward to. You wonder when in your packed schedule you are going to catch up and take a rest. You wonder how long you can keep going before the bailiffs of time come to get you (i.e. burnout or exhaustion). Similarly if you stay up late doing something pointless, like reading rubbish on wikipedia, this is what I would call consumerism of time - you are squandering what you have, and getting into debt for something that is worthless and transient (though truth be told I have never regretted the time I spent an hour reading about ball lightning on wikipedia) - for immediate gratification, rather than being focussed and saving your time for things of worth and lasting value such as time spent with friends

If you waste your time and are always on the back foot you will find you don't have the time to give to people when they need it. You will find that those nice ideas for things you could do for people as a surprise never happen. You will find you don't see people very often. You will find you have this strange feeling of being very busy all the time, but can never actually remember anything you actually did.

There are a few other things on my list but the things I have shared here are those I feel most passionately about. Wish me luck reader and I hope whatever resolutions/goals/dreams you’ve made for this year really will come true.