You Have Time. You Just Chose Something Else

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to.'"

Whether Lao Tzu actually said those words is almost beside the point. The quote survives because it forces us to confront something we'd rather avoid.

"I don't have time."

It's one of the most common phrases in the Joomla and open source communities. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone say they don't have time to test a release candidate, review a pull request, improve the documentation, report a bug or help another user on the forum.

I don't think they're lying. I do think they're mistaken.

It's Not About Time

When someone says they don't have time to contribute to Joomla, they're rarely making a statement about time itself. They're making a statement about priorities, even if they don't realise it.

Many people don't like to acknowledge this because it removes the excuse.

If you spent an hour debating a decision on social media, you had an hour that could have been spent testing a release candidate. If you wrote a long post explaining why Joomla should do something differently, you had enough time to open an issue or submit a pull request. If you spent an evening complaining that the documentation is incomplete, you had enough time to improve a page or correct a typo.

I'm not saying those other activities are wrong. Healthy debate is valuable. Challenging decisions is important. Every project benefits from discussion.

But discussion isn't the same as contribution.

Nobody Finds Time

Over the years, one question has been asked of me more than almost any other.

"Where do you find the time?"

The answer has always been the same. I don't.

Nobody finds time. It isn't something waiting to be discovered. Every contributor to Joomla has exactly the same twenty-four hours in a day as everyone else.

They don't contribute because they have somehow been given more spare time. They contribute because they decided that, today, contributing was more important than doing something else.

That decision isn't always easy. Every hour spent testing code, writing documentation, translating language strings or helping someone on the forum is an hour that can't be spent elsewhere.

Contribution always has a cost.

The difference is that contributors accept that cost instead of pretending it doesn't exist.

Open Source Runs on Decisions

Open source software doesn't look after itself. The open source fairies really don't exist.

People assume someone else will test the next release. Someone else will answer the support question. Someone else will review the code. Someone else will improve the documentation.

Sometimes someone else does. Sometimes they don't.

Every feature that exists in Joomla today is there because someone chose to make it happen. Every bug that has been fixed was fixed because someone decided it was worth spending their time on. Every translated language pack, every accessibility improvement, every documentation page and every support reply exists because an individual made a conscious decision to contribute.

Open source doesn't run on enthusiasm. It doesn't run on opinions, and it certainly doesn't run on complaints.

It runs because some people repeatedly decide that contributing matters.

Open Source Runs on Decisions

Open source software doesn't look after itself. The open source fairies really don't exist.

People assume someone else will test the next release. Someone else will answer the support question. Someone else will review the code. Someone else will improve the documentation.

Sometimes someone else does. Sometimes they don't.

Every feature that exists in Joomla today is there because someone chose to make it happen. Every bug that has been fixed was fixed because someone decided it was worth spending their time on. Every translated language pack, every accessibility improvement, every documentation page and every support reply exists because an individual made a conscious decision to contribute.

Open source doesn't run on enthusiasm. It doesn't run on opinions, and it certainly doesn't run on complaints.

It runs because some people repeatedly decide that contributing matters.

The Difference Between Users and Contributors

The reality is that most open source projects are not short of users. They are short of people willing to become contributors.

Thousands of people download Joomla. Thousands of people build websites with Joomla. Thousands of people benefit from the work of a relatively small number of contributors.

That is not a criticism. Open source has always worked this way. Not everyone who uses software has the skills, interest or available time to contribute code. Contributions come in many forms, and every community needs users as well as builders.

But every project eventually has to ask itself a question: are we only consumers of the software, or are we willing to help shape its future?

Consumption Is Easy. Contribution Is Hard.

Using open source software is easy. Installing it, building with it and benefiting from the work of others requires very little effort.

Contribution is different.

Contribution requires patience. It requires learning how things work. It requires accepting that your first contribution may not be perfect. It requires spending your own time to improve something that will benefit people you may never meet.

That is why contribution matters. It is not just about writing code. It is about taking responsibility for the tools and communities we depend on.

Who Builds the Things We Use?

Every piece of open source software exists because someone decided to build it, maintain it and support it.

The question is whether we are willing to be those people too.

Open source has always depended on people paying it forward. Someone helped you when you were learning. Someone wrote the documentation you relied on. Someone fixed the bug that was preventing you from moving forward.

The future of open source depends on whether we are prepared to do the same for the next person.

Try Changing One Sentence

For the next week, try a simple experiment.

Every time you find yourself saying, "I don't have time," replace it with a more honest sentence: "It isn't a priority for me right now."

The change is subtle, but it forces you to think differently.

Sometimes that new sentence will feel completely reasonable. None of us can do everything. We all have jobs, families, commitments and responsibilities that must come first. There will always be things that we consciously choose not to spend our limited time on.

But sometimes it may make you pause. It forces you to recognise that what you're describing isn't a lack of time. It's a choice about how you're spending the time you do have.

And once you recognise that, you can make a different choice.

Be Honest About Your Choice

This isn't a guilt trip. Open source depends on volunteers, and nobody owes Joomla their evenings or weekends. There are countless valid reasons why someone can't contribute at a particular moment in their life.

What I object to is the fiction that time is the problem. Time isn't making the decision. You are.

The next time you're tempted to say, "I don't have time to contribute," try saying something else instead.

"I've chosen to spend my time on something else."

That may sound harsher, but it's also more honest.

Perhaps if more of us were honest about our choices, we'd spend less time wondering why someone else hasn't fixed the problem and more time asking ourselves whether we're prepared to help.