Do you really "not have the time"?

There are a lot of busy people out there including myself. There are so many things that need be done but doesn't seem to have the time to do it. Really?

Time management is such a critical thing to a busy schedule. I've been fortunate to have relatively "mastered" time management. I'm a "go-getter" kinda gal. If I want something or need to accomplish something I usually do everything in power to get it done. I'm a big believer of "if there's a will, there's a way". Of course something's gotta give.

A lot of people come up to me and ask me "how do you have the time to do all that?"... between my full time job, part time photography and other side jobs such as designing websites, making invitations, helping friends pick out stuff for their new place - how could I have the time to take care of household stuff, cook dinner almost every night, go to the gym and family and social life? The answer is simple - I MAKE TIME. I know that there are only 24 hours in a day (sometimes more often than not, I wish there were more!).

I've learned to manage time quite well as soon as I started college. I had a fulltime restaurant manager job and attended school full time. I wanted to have a college education and the only way I could afford that was to work full time so giving up working was not an option. When you work at least 45 hours a week and take 16 hours at school - time management is critical. School of Architecture did not offer night classes so I had to schedule all my classes in the mornings 5 days a week from 8 am to 1:20 pm. I had to be at work from 2pm to 11pm. I had 40 minutes to make the 20 minute commute from school to work and get something to eat. After work I head back to the studio to work on projects. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep but that's very common for architecture majors. I also didn't get weekends off so when I had vacation time, I made sure it was something special. I had a schedule and I stuck to it as strictly as possible. I did that routine for about 6 years. When I graduated and had a normal 8-5 job and had weekends off - I seriously didn't know what to do with all that extra time! So I traveled! I had the funds (somewhat) and the time. It was great! With all that extra great time, I of course gained some weight - I've always been relatively in shape/skinny but my metabolism definitely wasn't the same when I was in high school/college. So I decided to add a normal gym routine to my schedule, on top of that I took on photography as a side business, oh of course I have a full time job, two dogs and a boyfriend to take care of! These are all the things I love to do and the people I love. I choose to make time for it. If I have to lose an hour or two of sleep at night to be able to go to the gym after work and cook dinner so be it. If I have to give up "partying" on the weekends to take on some photography jobs that's fine by me. I'm thinking of the big picture, little sacrifices now for the better later.

So when people tell me "I just don't have the time" - I wonder if they really don't have the time or they choose not to have the time..... sometimes "not having the time" is really not a valid excuse....