Tag: Time

The Time Challenge

Once again, we find ourselves with Friday. I find it amazing how fast a week goes. I get the feeling that when I’m not looking, somebody keeps on setting the clocks forward on me.

Honestly, time seems to be the same, and the question becomes, how much do I get done. There’s an equation in there somewhere. I just cannot bring it out at the moment.

We need to do the things we can do.  I cannot change time.  I can change what I do with the time, what I delegate to others, or what I am willing to let lay not attempted.

My challenge is to change what I can to make my use of time better.

What is your challenge with time?

New Technology

Technology takes time to learn. And those who are wise among us understand this and take the time needed. Technology offers new ideas and new ways, which save time, money, and often lives. Yet if you do not learn the necessary technologies, you are often left worse off than before.

I encourage everyone to put aside time to learn new ideas and new ways of accomplishing their work. Consider a few hours upfront equals a small investment in a positive future.

I remember when people told me they could not learn the computer. I asked them if they were born knowing how to drive or did they need to take lessons. No one I talked to had been born knowing how to drive a car or a truck. I must, although, let you know that I only know a tiny percentage of the overall population.

I explained to everyone asked that it was OK not to be born knowing how to drive. I also told the person that if they could learn how to drive, they can learn how to use a computer to type a letter, make a simple spreadsheet, or put together a PowerPoint. In a simple six-week course I used to teach, they learned everything about the computer to get a job, fill out forms, and write resumes and cover letters.

Are you facing something you think you cannot learn? Were you born with the knowledge to drive a car or a truck?

What Day Is It

I have something I have to admit. Every so often lately, I have been known to forget what day it is. Most of my life was spent with specific duties on specific days and every day spoken for. 

Now, I find myself with a little free time. And sometimes I may forget momentarily which day it is, or even though it’s a Thursday, it feels like a Saturday. I don’t have the freedom for this to happen often, but sometimes it does.

This is interesting to me. I guess our emotions have a lot to do with how we perceive the days. I am Always reminded to thank goodness it’s Friday (TGIF). Yet, Friday is not the most critical day of the week. Monday is far more critical. Why? Because if there are no Mondays, there are no Fridays.

Have you ever caught yourself thinking you were on a different day of the week?

What Are You Budgeting?

Many of us have to live by a budget. Some people go over their budget. If you are budgeting money, going over budget can be embarrassing. You may not have the money to pay for the bills when they come due. You may have to wait to buy something new, or you may have to negotiate for more payments of less money until the debts are paid.

There are other things you can budget. You can plan how many times you go out to eat in a month. You can estimate how often and how much you drive your car. And, you can budget how many times you bring your lunch from home, and how often you get to go out for lunch on work days. The most important thing to budget is time.

Budgeting time correctly is nothing less than an essential defensive operation and needs to be run like one. The things you have vying for your time are remarkably complex. You have television shows which are designed to be addictive so that you will watch the ads.

There are the books you want to read, and the ones you read while waiting for your favorite authors to write another sequel. Social media wants you to share with others on their site so that you can see the ads. Social media ads offer you the world for free if you give them your email address in exchange for a free PDF about whatever they’re trying to really sell you.

You want to go to some people’s parties, and other people want you to come to theirs. You would like to spend more time with your family, or your extended family is pressuring you to spend time with them. And, I won’t even get started about all the games on the internet!

Pretty soon you have 10,000 emails waiting to be read, your sleeping through the things you really want to watch, and your life is nowhere near that grand vision you once had. What are you going to do?

Well to start with, the realization and the questions have to be sated by your answers and plans and yours alone. To do what others tell you usually will not work because those answers are not yours. So somehow, you have to know, or figure out, what you want and what you have to use to get there.

Can you do everything at once? Probably not. Yet, if you figure out what’s important to you, and you map out a plan you can stick to, you might find some real relief and possibly overcome some of the demands others are pushing on you.

Very rarely are the things that are good, also the things that are smooth and easy to do. Those doing something vital for themselves or others often find the road bumpy and filled with potholes. The work comes in filling the potholes and making the way to where you want to be a smoother ride.

Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

 

Giving Back

I remember hearing or reading somewhere there is a saying, it goes something like, to those whom much is given, much is expected. We could look at this from many perspectives, for today, I am looking at the aspect of helping others.

I have always had a feeling and a desire to help others. When we have money, it is easy to make a donation. We can drop some coins in the kettle, have a monthly gift taken out of the check, attend a gala, or just write a check ourselves. What do we do when we don’t have funding for ourselves?

Working as a member of the military for most of my life and then putting kids through school, there were occasions when I understood the lack of personal funding. And yet, it never stopped me from helping others. Donating money, if you have it, is an easy way to help others. There are other ways which are sometimes a little bit more challenging.

Whenever I don’t have money to donate, I like to give time. Donating money is not cheap, yet you can always earn more money. Money becomes a renewable resource. If you donate your time, you are giving a nonrenewable resource which you cannot replenish. And yet there is a beautiful trade-off here.

When I donate time, I do give a nonrenewable resource which I know I will not be able to recoup. In exchange, though, I received terrific gifts in return. I am able to connect with people and talk with them. I learn new things that I consider important because the lessons come from those who actually live the knowledge they have to share. I may have a chance to make somebody’s day better. Having given this donation of time, no matter how grueling, I almost always walk away knowing that I feel better for the opportunity and the experience.

You don’t have to have something formal or participate through an organization, sometimes helping a neighbor rake the leaves or sit on the porch and talk with a neighbor who might be lonely is all it takes. If you play catch with the kids in the neighborhood and talk with them, you are positively molding the future.

Think about it. Because the real trick is, doing something good for someone else really does something good for you.

Thank you for being here today I hope to be with you again tomorrow.

GOT TIME?

Do you know what’s worse than a photographic mind? No film. I guess I must go digital. If only I had more memory…

I know you’ve heard me tell you before that time is more important and more precious than money. If you need money, you can always go out and earn money. When it comes to time, we are only given so much on this earth. Good luck getting an extra hour. I just don’t think that happens.

To use your time wisely, everyone tells you to write down a list of things you have to do. Yet, that is only half the equation. You need to know all the things you have to do. You also need to see a list of what is most important to you. Start with a list of what is most important to you.

Although this is a list of what is most important, start by writing down everything you can think of that is important to you. Then, go back and number the items on the list, with one being the most important, two the next most important, and so on. Then you can rearrange that list or rewrite it in the correct order, most important on down.

Now, figuring you only have 24 hours in a day and between seven and eight of those hours should be spent in sleep. The question becomes, ‘what the most important things are, and what can you do for the rest of the time?’ Please remember that paying the utility bill may not be more important than some other things. Getting the bill paid, can be urgent if you don’t want to watch TV by candlelight.

This is just something for you to consider and it may help to make your life a little bit easier.

If you do not think you have more ways you can make money easier than time, please send me a comment with an email, and I will send you some info and also offer you a free 20-minute call where we could discuss some of your options.

Take the Time Needed

Have you ever tried to accomplish a great many tasks, knowing precisely what you wanted to do and yet the harder you worked, the less you achieved?

It sounds like me this morning. Waking up early this morning, I went through my morning ritual, had a good breakfast and could not wait to get to work. Then, the computer took its own sweet time firing up.

You might say, “Not your fault Mate, it’s the technology.” And yes, it would be very easy to blame the technology is slow. And yet it is not always the technology. It is more the way we interact with the technology.

Technology has a very subtle way of doing things, and when firing up first thing in the morning, it has several routines to run. If the operator doesn’t give the technology time to do what it needs, the system will genuinely seem slow. When an operator does not provide technology the time to do startups and then demands more programs to start that requires more processor time, more memory, and more functionality, the technology just bogs down even more.

The smart thing for the operator to do is to fire up the computer and step away for a cup of coffee while the computer goes through the morning rituals of preparing the technology for the day. Then, bring up requests for software in a smooth and orderly fashion.

After all, the operator is actually biological technology. If pressed too hard by too many demands, the operator will suffer the same ‘bogging down.’ And, lose the ability to accomplish his or her requirements for the day.

Just something to consider as the desire to accomplish grows larger.

What’s Next

Outside the weather is performing Shakespeare:

To snow or not to snow that is the question.

Whether ‘tis nobler in the minds of men

to leave the roads dry and passable

or cover them with flakes of winters glory.

Aye, that is the question.

Inside I am being attended to by my computers which keep watch over me. They help me not to make errors in writing. They are also the keepers of my calendar reminding me what to do and when to do it. This works great except for one small concern, I am the human loads the computer. Therefore, if I mess up, the computer can no longer keep me straight on what I am doing.

It is important to me to keep everything moving and running correctly. I like to work at a fast pace and stay busy 8 to 10 hours a day. I don’t know if I feel better when I work? Or, maybe when I am working, I just don’t feel the pain is much. Either way, at least I feel I’m accomplishing something.

My problem is I either end up overbooked, missing something because I put it on the wrong calendar, turning down classes and webinars because I think I don’t have enough time.

Therefore, I’m resolved to set up one system that will work duration of the word perfectly.

Hang around with me and tell me your positive and negative stories about the electronic calendar and we will see if I can come up with one system that I can make to work perfectly.

If you have a great system that works for you, please write in and tell me about it I’d be very interested.

Thanks and have a great day everyone.

Time to Reflect and Plan

Good morning it’s a wonderful overcast, cold wintry day here. The snow is on the ground, the winds are blowing, visibility is under 2 miles, and although not a blizzard, the roads are icy enough to stay home and work out of the home office today.

I’m using today to benchmark how all my plans are going. I also look at ways I should change to make my work more vibrant and meaningful. You may consider this the active laying in the easy chair and stare at the ceiling. I won’t deny that some of that happen, yet actually, there’s more to it than just that. I look over the last six months to see what worked, what did not work, what I could’ve done better.

I do some work with some standard tools such as the affinity chart where I list ideas and concerns on post-its. I then take that affinity chart and move it into a Fishbone diagram also called the cause-and-effect diagram.  Where the fishes head would be, I list the main thing I want to improve and then in the body of the fish I break the Post-Its up into five groups along main bones of the diagram.  I use plans, people, prosperity, procurement, and papa nature.

This diagram allows me to look at all the variables gives me my best options that if I change something, it may improve the overall output from my business or at least from the part of the business that I’m working on right now.

You always need to keep an eye on what’s going on, because change is always inevitable. Changes fast and sometimes ruthless because and taking the path of least resistance change can often run over anything or anyone.

Thank goodness we have days like this where we can take a step back, drink a little hot chocolate while we watch the snow fall, and take the time to ensure I am doing the best I can or what I want to do to change.

Thanks for joining me. Have a good day, and if you would like to have some charts to work with or know more about this, please reply to the blog, and I will send you an email with the charts and how-toes you would need.

 

 

Time Woes

Have you ever noticed how fast time moves?

Time moves forward one second at a time in a relentless fashion. Seconds become minutes, then hours become days, and months become years, and finally, here I am in November wondering whatever happened to the Fourth of July. I am shocked that time never takes a timeout. What is that all about.

There’s something that we have to learn, and many do not learn this until it’s too late. The thought is ignored even though the warning signs, statements, and cute kitsch are found everywhere. The simple truth, each second, minute, hour, day, or year can never be retaken.

This leads us to another simple truth. Time leaves us whether we use that are not. You can’t save it up for an emergency or that planned future vacation. And no one else can control your reaction to time. You use it on something important to you, or you lose it. All of this is up to you.

Take a couple minutes and write down everything that’s important to you. Then put priorities to the list. Ask yourself, are you sitting in a room for days looking at how messy it is and how unkempt? Or are you taking 10 minutes to put pick everything up, throw the trash away, and put everything else back where it belongs? So how much time are you really going to spend in a dirty room, 10 minutes or days?

Please don’t think I’m preaching. Actually, I believe I’m talking to myself.

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