I still haven’t finished unpacking my belongings from college. There are still boxes and bags shoved in random places of my house and I have been home for over a month now. But for some reason, I just can’t seem to get it done.

I love to make lists. Grocery lists, wish lists, lists of peoples, lists of places; but most of all, lists of things to do. At any one time, there are about ten sticky notes floating around my room and shoved in the pages of my planner with the tasks I need to take care of, but to this day have not. It’s not that they’re not important to me, or that I don’t actually want to get them done, I can never seem to find the time.

Again, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t have time. I’m sure I have plenty of it. If I dug around in the backyard or looked under a rock or something. I’m sure if I searched for it, it’d be there waiting for me to use it. But my searches always seem to come up short. Maybe I’m not looking in the right places, or maybe I’m just not looking closely enough.

My mother calls this shortage a lack of time management. But I think I’m just low on time.

From jobs to clubs to classes to meeting up with friends, there never seems to be a moment to spare to get that last load of laundry done, or to get those books put away. I’m constantly running behind the clock, trying to catch up to that big hand, trying to trace the minutes I keep losing. As dust piles up from chores undone and the number of assignments I need to complete build up, I’m overwhelmed by how difficult it can be to catch up.

Maybe if I sleep less time, or stop letting myself get sucked into pointless activities, like texting that one person back; maybe if I keep my eyes peeled and don’t let my head drop down, I’ll catch time racing in front of me. Maybe if I keep a watch, I’ll be able to reach out and grab it.

I lounge here, writing this article in the last moments before I’m on to my next appointment, and I realize, every time I glance up to the top right-hand corner of my computer screen, I’m giving time the opportunity to escape me. As I lallygag, taking my time with tasks that normally don’t take me so long, I am opening time’s cage and letting him fly free. As I gaze around at my visual to-do list, piles of clothes, unwashed dishes, trips to the grocery and department stores, I realize that I give time the go ahead, allowing him to do his thing and leave me to do mine.

The options of ways to assess time's disappearance are vast. So when if I have to pick out one certain reason why I can't seem to get a grasp on the time, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar seems to sum up perfectly that a "lack of direction, not a lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days." Time feels limited, without a doubt, but we must focus on how we can effectively and productively use the time we have. Learning to prioritize and complete what is truly important is essential to keeping a hold of the escape artist that is time.