I Don’t Have Time, I Have More Important Things To Do
THIS JOURNAL BELONGS TO
IGEE OKAFOR
Find Some Time To Do Something
A careful consideration of productivity's true meaning awakened by self-fabricated conceptions of COVID-19’s negative impact.
10 mins READ TIME
For most of my adult life, I’ve spent every hour of my time strictly scheduled around work obligations. Experiencing anything different or even making time to, was threatening and a huge inconvenience for me. This was more than work. I was living my dream; being fortunate enough to be able to work for myself and in the industry I love the most.
When the quarantine order went into effect in New York City, it took awhile for me to adjust to the hump as I am sure it did for a lot of people who are used to being on a daily routine consisting of similar workloads and responsibilities. For me, one of my biggest concerns was figuring out how I was going to be able to navigate work and overall productivity effectively, especially as a 25 year old individual who started a new company as early as last year.
I’ve always taken great pride in my work as an entrepreneur and multifaceted creative. For the last few years, I have been able to work on a large scale with the most incredible people and institutions - from fashion to travel, hospitality and charities alike. I never put financial gain in the driver’s seat even though it’s an added plus I considerably hold to high regard. With everything I do, I make sure to do my best to create the healthiest opportunities in my power to create the best possible scenarios for myself, my clients, and my staff. It’s safe to say that two of the things I’ve found the most meaning in as a young adult are my personal connections, and my work.
My immediate reaction to the uncertainty of the quarantine effect focused on questions that seemed to have no enthused answers. Of course, unconsciously blinded by my prejudiced concept of how I was supposed to be functioning based on how I perceived the lifestyle I was used to, filled with social interaction and usually with effective outcomes - personally and professionally.
I began stressing about the livelihoods of the staff I was responsible for instead of deadlines, my projected income for the year, the livelihood and health of my family, and the list goes on. It seemed as though everyone was taking a huge hit - friends and family were calling and they were getting laid off, losing jobs, and projecting overall concern for the situation and the news wasn’t glowing either.
After a few days accompanied with a few glasses of red wine and no utter inclination to be creative or productive, I started to get sick of feeling powerless. Sure, my livelihood was still at risk and seemed to have taken a massive decline, but having those few days with myself allowing acknowledgment for an obvious lack of control for once in my adult life unconsciously prompted me to acknowledge and attempt focusing on everything else my life was complemented with. That is, outside rewatching Tom Ford movies, and Elite on Netflix.
A large part of my career and what I have always set out to do as an individual has always been about encouraging people to empower themselves. I couldn’t help but wonder - [yes, I had to slide in that Carrie Bradshaw reference] Why wasn’t I doing that in this case? Were things really not in my hands? Was it really out of my control? Why did I feel that way? What could I do to fix things or at least attempt to? What are the challenges I am actively able to identify? What ways could I actively overcome them for the sole purpose of feeling like myself more than anything?
I thought of the random Tiny Desk performance I had come across on Youtube days before of Tyler The Creator’s song, “Boredom”. The lyrics began with “Find some time, find some time to do something” and then, “Boredom got a new best friend”.
Photo: Sam Horine
Photo: Sam Horine
Being the reflective man that I am, a key quality I hold dear to my sense of self, I started to try to dissect the lyrics. I was following as the song seemed to request from me - I had to find time to do something and in that moment, that thing was trying to piece together what this song might have been about. Would I have been doing this if I was still on my routined schedule? Perhaps not. My knee jerk reaction would probably read something like “I don’t have time. I have important things to do.”
These words stuck out to me so much and it got me rethinking the definition of boredom and how it indirectly correlates with the real meaning of being productive. I caught myself constantly humming throughout the day, “find some time, find some time to do SOMETHING.”
I started to realize my best productive self didn’t have to be solely defined by one thing which at the time depended on the contributions of certain external factors. For example, knocking out the 100 things I felt I needed to do on my To-Do list in one day.
Withstanding the aforementioned, the idea at its core looks different in various contexts and in every situation. It’s about rising to the occasion with the essential tools allotted. In a sense, it’s about really being one with yourself and making consistent efforts in maximizing the opportunity of characterizing your perspective solely based on what is physically capable and with time. Redefining being the best I can be but what that looks like in a time of challenge and limited resources that are clearly subjective.
In a modern world that celebrates the account of the “Live your best life” motto, it’s easy to label this thought as cliché especially at this timing where everyone else seems to be rediscovering themselves but I couldn’t help but wonder [yes, Carrie Bradshaw again - at this point, I think I am so clever], was the productivity hack this simple? Did I really waste all this time feeling sorry for myself when the solutions were clearly written on the wall letting me know it all begins with identifying the problem?
I like to think of myself as an operations driven mind. Give me a blank word doc or sheet of paper, and I’ll start to jot down all of my possibilities with intense research and enforcements to follow. I figured the answer to my very brief knockdown commenced with specifying achievable daily goals just as I prioritized in the life I was used to! The difference would be allowing more compromises than usual on expectations on objectives I longed to achieve. (For example, updating my Linkedin profile that hadn’t been touched since 2016)
After this epiphany during a very long night shower, I was back to productivity mode. Maybe not fully, but moving on, I was going to work on figuring out the necessary steps I needed to change how I was feeling about myself. Resetting my calendar was going to be a major key or so I thought.
It has been a month of quarantining, and I am enumerating that productivity isn’t fully a jam packed calendar or daily scheduling. Productivity can also be processed through spontaneity, or simply blocking off certain times for specific goals that one would like to achieve. At the core of the definition as it translates to the human experience, it’s really about habitually making time to reach well grounded decisions on how to best cultivate your time.
Productivity is not a competition or a contest to see how much work you can get done. It’s about getting the best results you can and making sure everything leading up to is conducive enough for you to do so.