Oftentimes I hear students complain about not having enough time to accomplish the myriad of things they’re striving for in college.

It seems the older we get the more we want to do, but we have less time available to work on accomplishing those things. Well, here’s the thing: complaining takes time — we are all given the same 24 hours each day — and how you decide to use that time is up to you.

Bruce Lee once said, “It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

Picture your life as if it were a box. In that box are a bunch of things you either want or want to do. The more things you add, the less room you have. That’s how our life can be sometimes. Frequently we want to do more than we have time to do. And why don’t we have time?

Because we waste it.

To accomplish more, we need to break away from the non-essential that often depletes us. Instead of adding, try subtracting.

What can you eliminate from your daily routine that will ultimately make you more productive? It takes several minor sacrifices to get the big reward.

To strengthen my premise, I would like for you to check out the book “How To Avoid Work” by William J. Reilly. In the book, Reilly provides interesting perspective as why we don’t accomplish things we’re striving for.

Reilly says, “Whenever a person is not doing what he says he wants to do, he always has what sounds like a good excuse. And it’s always one or more of three: ‘I haven’t the time.’ ‘I haven’t the money.’ ‘My folks don’t want me to.’ Each of these melts away as an imaginary obstacle when we shine the light of intelligence upon it. Without time nothing is possible.”

The next time you feel there isn’t enough time for you to go after one of your goals, take a good honest look at your habits. What are you willing to sacrifice? Are you spending too much time socializing? Sleeping? Procrastinating? Maybe you don’t want it bad enough?

All logical questions that need to be answered. Only you can answer them.