Do we all really have the same 24 hours? Uh-uh

I had a boss who was fond of saying that we all have the same 24 hours whenever somebody—usually a subordinate—complained about being too busy. 

Curiously, he was one of the least busy people. I wondered what he really knew about prioritizing when his biggest concern was his afternoon tee times. Still, I thought his saying was a good one. 

At the time. 

In this era of memes, "we all have the same 24 hours in a day" is often accompanied by another line, like "make them count" or "no excuses." One version even goes into a long-winded (for a meme) explanation about how nobody cheated and got 25 hours or gave you only 23, just to underline the meaning for the dim-witted, I guess. 

Many of the memes are accompanied by stock images of people staring off into the distance, presumably pondering their priorities and chastising themselves for going out with friends when they should have stayed late at the office and put a new cover sheet on the TPS report. 

I'm sure I've tossed the 24-hour saying around in the classroom a few times when students complained about assignments. I was an asshole, what can I say? 

See, I've come to realize that this statement of supposed equality is pretty toxic. Yes, it's true that each person has 24 hours each day. But not everybody's 24 hours are spoken for equally. 

If you're a 16-year-old kid who has to take care of younger siblings while one or both of your parents are working, incarcerated, or incapacitated, your 24 hours are spent much differently—through no fault of your own—than many of your peers. 

If you're a person living with a disability, you may spend extra hours dealing with the activities of daily living that so many others take for granted. If you're a person with a disability in the workplace, it may take many more steps—and time—for you to accomplish what a colleague can do with much less effort.

If you depend on public transportation, you may spend extra hours each day just getting to and from work or school. If you're working your way through college, you may be picking up extra shifts while your classmates are tossing frisbees around the quad. 

It all affects your 24 hours.

If the goal is to be a smartass, then mission accomplished with the "everybody has the same 24 hours" statement. If your objective is to change behavior, then not so much.

Initiating a conversation is a better way to go. Ask the employee, colleague, or student what is keeping them from accomplishing a particular task. Then really listen when they tell you. 

Maybe the answer is as simple as they didn't know it had to be done. Or they didn't realize how important it was to the business, their learning, or their grade. 

Sometimes, the answer may be that they are squandering time, spending too many hours binge-watching the latest Netflix phenomenon or playing video games. In those cases, nudging them to prioritize their time differently could help. 

Explaining the consequences of not doing something in a timely way can also be effective, provided that it's not condescending or dripping with sarcasm. 

And if you hear somebody who's drowning, throw them a life preserver. If they have more on their plate than is possible to accomplish, and if you have it within your power to lighten their load, even temporarily, why not? 

This isn't lowering expectations or piling work onto somebody else. It's being empathetic. 

So, yeah, we all have the same 24 hours. And we can use that time to help one another or to be a jerk who pops off with sayings about how we all have the same amount of time. 

I spent time in Camp Jerk. Now, I've relocated.