The month of February met me traveling. I had my final exam for the semester towards the end of January. Barely two hours later, I was on a train on my way to Moscow, where I visited a friend for a few days. I was soon on the road again. At the brink of the new month, I departed from Moscow- this time, I headed south. I was attending a five-day event that was concluded just yesterday.

The past few days have been such an experience. Getting together with other Christian youth from all over the country in unified fellowship was just so blissful. Aside from the spiritual revitalization it brought, it was such an amazing opportunity to reconnect with friends and meet new people.

Today’s post was meant to be all about my trip and I intended to share my experience with you all. However, I think I will leave that for later, the reason being that I am yet to fully process it all. At a later time, I’ll be able to adequately express my thoughts and give a fitting report.

That being said, today’s post will be relatively short.

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24 Hours Not Enough?

If you’ve been following this space in the past few months, you probably would have noticed a consistent theme of “overwhelm” (the positive kind) lately. In the last post, I hinted at how everything seems to be happening twice as fast. I believe that this is primarily a result of the surge of activities around me.

From personal responsibilities and projects to external deliverables with hot deadlines, there is just so much to be done across the board in so little time. As much as I try to catch up by crossing out some of them, it feels like putting out a grease fire with water — it only gets bigger. The stream is endless.

On the one hand, it’s simply a seasonal phase that has me dealing with a number of things simultaneously, with several mental tabs opened at once. It might probably get better with time. On the other hand, I’m unsure how long this season will last. My current state might only be the least I would have to deal with going forward.

With this in mind and having a “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” disposition, it became necessary to seek balance in my endeavours. I am still figuring out the whole “balance” thing and working on building a system that works for me, but I thought to share the most important lesson I’ve learned so far in my quest for balance.

Not All Things Are “Needful”

I happen to have many interests, most of which are seemingly unrelated — from Photography to writing to music to languages, and many others that remain unexplored. My desire to explore them all requires me to invest time and energy into them, not to mention my academic and career pursuits also beckoning on my time.

The truth is I am tempted to take on everything at once. I mean, I should be going for all the things I want, yeah? Well, that’s what some motivational speakers tell us (PS: I’m all for genuine motivation when needed). However, that advice is usually not practical enough.

There are only 24 hours in a day, and for effective use, there’s only so much you can do. Trying to cramp everything into our schedules at once only leaves us worse off for it. We eventually crash under the weight of such overload, and most times, our results end up being substandard — not the best trade-off, in my opinion.

To adequately engage our interests and responsibilities, I have learned that it is more efficient to focus on one or two at a time, based on priority level. As much as we want to do everything at once, not everything is essential at all times.

Some tasks or interests are more time-sensitive than others. They would require a certain level of emphasis in a specific season. Applying your time equally across everything in such seasons would only jeopardize the one with a time frame. Also, some tasks have greater returns than others and should rank higher over the less rewarding ones on our priority list.

Choosing Your Focus

It’s one thing to know what to do; practical application is another thing entirely. This part of the equation is relative to each person and different seasons. It might require some meticulous analysis of all the stuff on your hands to figure out what should be the point of emphasis at the moment.

It would also require adequate planning and some experimenting. But once you figure out what works for you, everything automatically becomes more manageable with less friction to execution and less mental stress.

What is your current project/interest of emphasis?