Q&A: How to Find Time
How to Find Time
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’d like to ask you a somewhat different question. I’m an electronics engineer, 31 years old, single. And despite being single, I still can’t find proper time to study and develop myself in a way that would let me feel good enough about how I use my time.
When I get back from work I’m too tired to learn anything deep. On Fridays, when I don’t work, I’m busy with travel, shopping, cleaning, and preparations for the Sabbath. In between, I try to meet potential candidates for marriage. The Sabbaths go by quickly, and I feel despair about the possibility of reaching meaningful knowledge as long as I’m not retired. I can’t even imagine what it will be like once I’m married, with children.
In the past I thought about continuing to advanced degrees and hoping I could land a teaching position in a high school or university, a job that would leave me more time to engage in the world of the spirit.
Just to illustrate: it took me about seven months to finish your book Two Carts and a Hot-Air Balloon.
You inspire me to keep developing myself and not give up. You have several academic degrees alongside broad and deep learning in the world of the spirit. How does one do that? I’d be happy if you could share some of the insights you’ve accumulated over the years on this topic.
Thank you!
Answer
I have a few suggestions, but nothing especially original.
First, put yourself into a study framework, a study partner and/or a class, even if it comes a bit at the expense of work. Don’t compromise on this, because otherwise it’s hard to keep going.
Second, try to create something of your own. Focus on one topic rather than page after page. Write an article on the subject when you finish studying it. Try giving classes. All of this creates commitment and helps you study and crystallize the issues.
Try to connect your learning to subjects that interest you. Connections like these help one persist in learning and creating. Look for where your unique contribution to the world of learning might be. By the way, even in the “external” subjects, it’s worth doing everything seriously: study different subjects in courses and in a systematic way, reach a good level, and then try to connect them to Torah study. In my experience, the basic problem of laymen is not דווקא Torah study, but that they don’t do anything seriously that isn’t part of their career. It may be worth starting by looking for areas in which you would want, and be able, to focus seriously, and that are unrelated to your work. If you succeed at that, I hope it will also work for Torah study.
Good luck,
I have a few more tips to add regarding efficient time management:
1. Listen to classes from discs or from your smartphone in the car while commuting to work and other places.
2. Listen to classes while doing errands, cleaning, and cooking at home (it also makes it more enjoyable).
3. There’s a framework called “Times for Torah” that might suit you; see this link: http://www.itimlatora.co.il/ (I myself go there).
4. Be careful to maintain a short, varied daily learning routine from different sources, like a daily chapter of Maimonides, a daily chapter of Mishnah, a daily chapter of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), etc. (preferably after morning prayer, and not to push it off until the end of the day, lest you not have time).
5. Set yourself a reminder on your phone to go to sleep early. That way you’ll be less tired during the day and have more energy for learning.
6. Use Sabbaths and holidays for meaningful study (possibly with a family study partner). You can give up naps on the Sabbath / Jewish holidays.
7. Start implementing the above without thinking about the long-term implications; just begin, and adjust the load as you go, with the mindset that you’re only in a trial period.
8. It’s important not to overload yourself all at once. Increase the load gradually, and if you feel overwhelmed, reduce it gradually rather than throwing everything away at once.
Wishing you success.