There is no such thing as a lack of time. Anyone who tells you they don’t have time for something is outright lying to your face. What they are really saying is that your request or idea just isn’t a priority for them. And yes, I am just as guilty as anyone for saying I don’t have the time….
Unlike finances (which have a more relative scale), everyone on this planet has 24 hours in their day: no more, and with few exceptions, no less. So as it stands, we are all on an equal playing field with the same boundaries and limitations. The differences are seen by how we prioritize that time.
Sometimes when looking at new requests, we may need to rethink our current prioritizations, or more deeply, what the actual time impact of the request is. Take, for example, the idea that you want to start blogging… if you’ve read my prior post on the hidden costs of social engagement you may be less than inclined to take on such an endeavor… but what if I told you that you really do have time for blogging and that you’re likely already 9/10ths of the way there? Don’t believe me? Well, you have time to send email, right?
If you are sending email to more than one person on cc:, then you have time to blog. As my friend and social business colleague Ryan Boyles recently pointed out via his tumblr post: Doc Searls explained back in 2004 that “Blogging is Email cc: World.” I’ve previously called this concept “scalable communication”, but I think that misses the simplicity and understandable nature of “cc: world”. The simplicity of one-to-many passive communication is the brilliance of social media. And, of course, as Ryan notes: tweeting is just like texting cc:world.
No, I am not saying stop emailing and make everything you write a blog post. But what I am saying is that just one wider audience email message could be easily converted into a blog post allowing for blogging to step up in priority without sacrificing something else in that time slot. With just a quick shift in perspective, you now have time to blog without a heavy toll on your time.
As we progress towards more open and transparent communication, with sharing our own expertise online becoming more important to our future careers, why not re-prioritize and start blogging once a week or so as your own email cc:ing the world? So, where is social involvement ranked in your priority list now that you have the time?
