BY JEFF CORBETT

Today’s column has an embarrassing origin. I had just sat down to write it when an interesting news blurb popped up on my computer screen. I took the bait and clicked on it.

Thirty minutes later, when I came to my senses, I suddenly realized I was guilty of “screen sucking,” the term for going down a internet rabbit hole, where I had just wasted a half-hour of my life that I will never get back.

Have you ever done that?

After fuming for a minute, I discarded the original topic and decided to have a conversation with you about “time.”

Never Enough Time

We live in a society today where everyone’s mantra is “I don’t have enough time!” When’s the last time you said that?

But if you stop and think, we all have the same 24 hours each day, so it’s really about how you use your time. Perhaps it’s better to use the term “Priority Management” instead of “Time Management.”

Try this: The next time you say “I don’t have enough time,” define why you don’t.

You may complain, “I don’t have enough time before I go to work in the morning.”

When you identify why, you can address the root problem to make your mornings better.

If you don’t have enough time, it may be your priorities that are out of kilter.

And, yes, there are times in your life when there truly is not enough time. Consider sleep-deprived parents of a newborn, or maybe you are caring day and night for an aging parent with Alzheimer’s disease.

When my wife was at the height of her cancer, I was taking care of her, raising my two sons, and working full time. It felt overwhelming at times.

I found solace in the phrase “Success in life isn’t being dealt a good hand; it’s playing a difficult hand well.”

In these situations, know that we live life in chapters. Be strong, and the hard times will pass.

How you use time defines you. Prioritize your time, and budget time like money.

Keep in mind that the average American will work 90,000 hours until retirement. If you don’t have enough time, do something about it now — to have a better life.

Please don’t live your life on auto-pilot. Your most valuable moments are the ones to which you give your full attention.

Rules of Time

Let’s have some fun with rules involving time.

♦ The One-Minute Rule: How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on.

♦ Do It Now Rule: If you can do it in 60 seconds or less, do it then, don’t put it off.

♦ Rule of First: When meeting people, speak first, smile first, and give first.

♦ Two-Year Rule: If something in your closet has not been worn in the past two years, donate it!

♦ Four Wrong-Sides Rule: You’ve heard of “getting up on the wrong side of the bed.” Some people’s beds have four-wrong sides, and their mission that day is to make you grumpy, frustrated, and unhappy, just like them. Write them off and enjoy your life!

♦ Two Dawns Rule: When you have an irrevocable or major decision in your life, give it two dawns (two days) before you decide, to neutralize emotion, to ponder your decision, and to seek input from those you trust.

♦ The Beautician Rule: Time is a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.

Time is Precious

Back in the early 1980s when I was the morning radio personality on WSIC, a close friend of mine was Jerry Brown, the program director and mid-day announcer.

He left WSIC to work for the Tarheel Sports Network, and we eventually lost touch.

Decades flew by and then earlier this year I got a phone call from him, and he was on what he’s calling his “Farewell Tour.”

In 2024, he had significant heart problems and died twice on the operating room table.

Dying twice was a major wake-up call for Jerry, and he realized he’s now living on bonus time.

He came up with his “Farewell Tour” to connect with the many people who, throughout his life, meant so much to him. Friends, co-workers, teachers, people from all walks of life who crossed his path, all got his calls.

Jerry says we never know how much time we have left, so when his time comes, he can rest with the knowledge that all those who touched his life know what they meant to him, and how much he appreciated his time with them.

Your Own Farewell Tour?

Even if you aren’t in a healthcare crisis or poor health, could you, would you, have your own Farewell Tour?

It need not be elaborate or dramatic. Just let the important people in your life know why they’re important to you and how much you appreciate them, while you still can.

To put an exclamation point on this idea, consider the quiet force of Merrill Glass’s poem below, a reminder that what’s left unsaid can echo louder than words.

‘But You Didn’t’

Remember the time you lent me your car and I dented it?
I thought you’d kill me …
But you didn’t.

Remember the time I forgot to tell you the dance was
formal, and you came in jeans?
I thought you’d hate me …
But you didn’t.

Remember the times I’d flirt with
other boys just to make you jealous, and
you were?
I thought you’d drop me …
But you didn’t.

There were plenty of things you did to put up with me,
to keep me happy, to love me, and there are
so many things I wanted to tell
you when you returned from
Vietnam …
But you didn’t.