“I didn’t have enough time.”

That’s probably the most overused phrase I hear these days. Americans, that includes teenagers, are leading increasingly busier lives which have been proven to be unhealthy and stressful. In fact, we seem to be so busy that dedicating time daily to picking up a book has become troublesome.

Over Winter Break, I watched a tedTalk, given by Laura Vanderkam called How to gain control of your free time, and to be frank, after watching that 12 minute video, I began to see my spare time a little differently.

I remember talking with my dad in the past about exercise, and it’s mental and physical benefit [such a teenager thing to tell a parent!]. I have made exercise a rudimentary component to my day after school, whether that means playing tennis, running four miles, or walking two. I feel that I have greatly profited from the time I dedicate towards my exercise regimen… I concentrate better when I study, I remember my classes and what I’ve learned in them better, and I simply put, I enjoy feeling that ego-boosting adrenaline of self accomplishment.

Naturally, I wanted to share my excitement and enthusiasm for exercise with my dad. I described the mental benefits I’d received, including better focusing, more energy overall and a sense of self accomplishment. I told him that he shouldn’t be discouraged by not being able to, per se, run my 4-5 mile running route without stopping, or play 1 hour of rigorous tennis against the Playmate at the club. I even told him he didn’t have to exercise everyday! Just 3 times a week! After all my advertising and persuasion, this was the answer I got: “I don’t have enough time, honey. Daddy’s really busy.”

When people say, “I don’t have enough time”, to me, it sounds as if every second of their life is booked with work, commute, sleep, or mealtimes. Yet a few years back, every frequently used appliance seemed to break. I believe the breaking order went something like this: some part of the car, microwave, laundry machine, and then the dishwasher.

What happened then with the “I don’t have time” situation? My dad jumped in. He did some research, went to BestBuy, browsed Amazon and visited the car mechanic. Where did all this time come from? This is exactly the question that Laura Vanderkam tackles. She stated in her tedTalk that it’s not that we don’t have enough time…it’s that we just don’t want to do something. In this case, exercise for my dad [well, he claims 20 minutes of ping pong at work counts]. It’s a simple matter of prioritizing. The car needed to be repaired because my mom drove around in it everyday and safety needed to be maintained. The microwave needed to be repaired because who knows when the stove will break and all we’ll be able to eat at home is microwavable food? And the dishwasher most definitely needed to be repaired since my dad loathes washing the dishes [when it comes to loading a very packed dishwasher, his answer is always, “Yes, there’s still room”. Even mom questions that answer sometimes].

When something is not a priority and we end up not completing the task, our catch phrase is too often, “I didn’t have enough time.” I believe that many of us truly mean, “Yeah, it wasn’t a priority.” Vanderkam also shows some simple equations to help bring awareness to the amount of time we have within a week, and therefore, day to do the things we claim “we do not have time for.”

Hours in a week→  24*7= 168
Hours spent sleeping [these may vary] → 8*7= 56
Hours spent in school/work [may vary, includes MS sports] → 8*5= 40
Commute time to school [will vary] → 5
Homework [will vary] → 3*6=18

168 - [56+40+5+18]= 49 hours a week outside of school/school work/commute/sleep

Breakdown per day: 49/7= 7 spare hours a day

So for many of us, we may have around 50 hours per week to do whatever else we choose to pursue in life. It seems like a lot of hours that we simply do not have. This calculation is assuming everything is on schedule, and that everything happens directly after each other, meaning no natural breaks between tasks.

Think of it like this, we have as much time each day as Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison. Next time we catch ourselves saying, “I didn’t have enough time”, let’s reconsider whether we actually mean, “It was not a priority”.