Why is achievement said to come down to how you allocate your time? Everyone has only 24 hours a day. Wherever you spend most of your time, that’s where your achievements will be: invest it in writing and you’ll accumulate works and have a chance to become a writer. Utsudo found that wanting to try everything left her increasingly stretched thin, and realized her energy was limited and she had to choose. Stumbling before you find the goal that suits you is inevitable, but living in the present with a goal matters most.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

“The essence of achievement in life lies in how you allocate your time.” I read this somewhere, found it very true, and wrote it down.

I might not have understood it before. But now that I’m busier and busier, still wanting to try everything yet increasingly unable to keep up—and anxious about it—I’ve realized that time and energy are limited. I couldn’t agree with it more.

Everyone has only 24 hours a day

Rich or poor, high or low, everyone has only 24 hours a day, and most of us won’t live past a hundred. Whether you live diligently or lazily, when this life is over, that’s it.

So, setting aside upbringing, what we achieve in this seemingly long life depends on where we put our limited time.

If you invest a lot of time in writing, you’ll produce many works and have a chance to become a writer. If you invest a lot of time in drawing, you can build a brilliant portfolio and maybe become a renowned painter.

Likewise, if you spend most of your free time playing video games, unless you want to be a streamer or work in a related industry, that time is basically thrown away.

People today are under a lot of pressure, so hobbies and leisure are of course necessary. But here we’re talking about “achievement,” so please bear with me.

Where your time goes, your achievements follow

Back to the point: simply put, wherever you spend lots of time is where your achievements will naturally be. So if you want to “achieve something,” you’ll have to spend more time in that field. Success isn’t guaranteed, but you’ll certainly be much stronger than those who didn’t invest the time.

So if you want to achieve something, spend as much time on it as you can. As for how to reach your goal more efficiently, I think that’s another topic.

Energy is limited, so you must learn to choose

Human energy and time are limited. Once your energy runs out, it’s gone, and you need to rest before setting off again. Apart from unavoidable responsibilities, what do you want to spend the rest of your life mastering?

You may want to do many things. But if you do them all, you might end up knowing a little of everything without being the best at any. Unless you’re a learning genius who picks things up quickly—geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci are the exception—and I think most people aren’t, it’s better to find the direction that suits you best and dig deep.

But faced with so many choices, deciding what to give up isn’t easy. And if, after narrowing down to the last one, you find after a while that it isn’t what you want, you have to start over.

So before finding the goal that suits them best, most people stumble around. Of course, some lucky people find it very young and carefully nurture that seedling, so they usually achieve socially defined success earlier.

Living in the present with a goal

But everyone is born with different stats and suited to different fields. How you choose is up to you—what you’re good at, or what you love. In any case, a field you’re willing to pour lots of time into, a direction, will make your world different.

An elder once said with a sigh: “There are many things I want to do, but time is limited, so I have to choose.”

Time is fair. Once you’ve squandered it, no amount of money or status means much. So I think living in the present with a goal may be the most ideal state.

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Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #133: Does the Source of Inspiration Really Matter That Much?
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.