What do people have in common? The answer is time – the common denominator transcending gender, wealth, health, and marital status. Each of us is allotted the same 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, placing us on equal footing to everyone. However, the distinguishing factor lies in how we choose to utilize this precious resource we call time.
As a practicing artist, I recognize that expanding the production of my artworks depends upon embracing the printing method, but I don’t do that. Working solo, without the aid of an apprentice or artisan, I’m constrained by my own limited capacity. While I could opt to hire an assistant, I am currently committed to crafting my artworks entirely by my own hand. Therefore, I should maximize my productivity and not waste time to get my desired output of my work.
In the 24 hours gifted by providence, I allocate approximately 8 hours to sleep (including noon naps), leaving me with a potential work time of 16 hours. However, essential activities such as meals (three times a day with snacks in between), daily walks, personal hygiene routines, and dressing consume an average of 2 1/2 hours. Additional time is dedicated to social media engagement, including posting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, watching motivational YouTube videos totaling two hours. Factor in other time-consuming tasks like errands, client calls/meetings, writing business proposals, making daily editorial cartoons for Mindanao Times, material procurement, gallery visits, driving my wife to and from wherever—an average of 4 1/2 hours. This leaves me with an average of 7 hours a day for actual work.
Is this allocation good or bad? On average, it’s satisfactory, as I manage to dedicate about 2 hours daily to composing my editorial cartoon. This effectively means I spend 9 hours a day on productive work, except on Sundays, which I reserve as a rest day. This analysis unveils the crucial aspects and activities in my life, shedding light on the variables influencing my output and the level of work ethics and discipline I uphold daily.
This assessment also underscores that to enhance productivity by increasing working hours, adjustments must be made by deducting time from other activities. Whether it involves reducing sleep hours or curbing time spent on social media, decisions need to align with productivity goals. For now, I am content with the current time allocation, consistently painting each day producing at least 2 medium-sized paintings a week, daily making art canvases ordered by my customer artists, alongside my daily editorial cartoon and this weekly article for this column—a pursuit I deeply cherish.
How about you? How do you allocate your daily time? Do you use it productively or wastefully? Time is the most valuable commodity on this planet, we can add more money in our bank account but we can never add even a single second to our 24 hours.
