Skip to main content

Do Your Best With Time

Here's another guest entry from my good friend and fraternity brother David Spiegel. If you know anything about the East Coast you'll get a sense for how his day went. If you ever struggle with managing time, some of this may sound familiar. As Dave says, we can't really manage time -- it's what we do with it that matters.

Now, let's hear what Dave has to share:

In a week where I have dedicated myself to regaining control over my time, I have come to realize that I am trying to accomplish something impossible. Time is time. Every day has exactly 1440 minutes to it and no matter what we do,we can not create any more of it.

So instead of creating more time we spend our energy trying to make better use of those precious minutes each day.We attempt to manage time. 

Well guess what. We have no control over time. Time itself can not be managed. We can not speed it up or slow it down. 

Do you know why a watched pot never boils? It's a time thing!

The only thing we can manage is ourselves and what we do with the time allotted each day.

Yesterday was a prime example. I had to be in New York. Without traffic, the trip from my driveway to mid-town where I wanted to be is roughly 18 minutes.I knew I would need about 30 minutes in the City and then blow right back to NJ.I carved out a 2 hour window mid day when I knew morning rush hour would be over and well before evening rush hour.It was a great plan.

Unfortunately that carved out 2 hours became 5.5 hours before I knew it. No big deal. I made adjustments . I had my phone with me and I could accomplish some things sitting in traffic.

Not really. At some point,my phone died. That was shortly after Susan was bit by a dog and had to get treated.Where was I ,her dutiful caring husband? 8 miles away sitting in traffic with no real means of being of any assistance. Truth be told she is fine and it  was handled. The point being I could control neither the time or the situation. What I could control was myself and my response to all of this.

It is 4:10 in the morning on this June 12th How am I Doin' Friday. I am doing great as I prepare to make the best of the 1440 minutes allotted to me for the day.I have a seminar at 8:30 in the morning.I have a funeral at 11 , an hour south of the seminar which ends at 10.How long can a funeral possibly take?

Well ,as long as it needs to.Realistically, that may be the extent of what I can attend to today. I have no idea. I can plan to allocate another two hour window . I think by now we realize that will only end in frustration.That is why I am writing at 4 in the morning.One more accomplishment. One more item off of the agenda.By the way ,since I first sat down to write I have used up 34 minutes, approximately 2.5% of my day's total minutes.

I have a business partner in the UK whose work day started a short while ago. I will now jump on a call with him trying to recapture some of those precious minutes, or at least make better use of them.
All of this brings me to one remarkable conclusion. When I spend any amount of time worrying about not having enough time or how much time I am wasting, I am in fact creating my own stress and participating in an activity that I am so desperately trying to end. It can be a vicious cycle.

So I will do my best to do my best with the 1440 minutes I have for today. By the way,since I last checked I used up another 1%.

Have a Fantastic Day!
Shabbat Shalom!

David
Remember to say thank you....It pays dividends


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Benefits of Supervisory Training

When was the last time you had any leadership training? How often do the supervisors in your organization get training? If you are like most organizations, it's never enough. Some teams go without any supervisory training at all and expect supervisors and managers to learn as they go, on the job. Unfortunately, while it is memorable to learn from your mistakes, it comes at a high cost. People get tired. People leave. Important accounts go away. Customers complain. And teams struggle without the skills and knowledge it takes to build cohesive teams that are capable of solving problems, improving performance and achieving goals. Admittedly, I can be expected to support training since I'm in the business. Still, take a closer look at your own leadership career and decide for yourself. Are leaders better off with more training and development or with less? Supervisory training can generate benefits that pay off long after the training is over. Here are just a few of the things sup...

Enjoy Your Stories Developing

Have you ever noticed that something tough you once lived through, perhaps endured with some hardship, can much later become an amusing story, even a funny one? It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite people, a famous story teller, entertainer, musician, and comedian - Steve Allen. He said: Tragedy plus time equals comedy. (the quote has often been attribute to other people, but I'm on a bit of a mission to clarify attribution whenever possible and I'm fairly certain Mr. Allen was the first to say it. Here's the whole account, from an excellent source for clarifying attribution): When I explained to a friend recently that the subject matter of most comedy is tragic (drunkenness, overweight, financial problems, accidents, etc.) he said, “Do you mean to tell me that the dreadful events of the day are a fit subject for humorous comment? The answer is “No, but they will be pretty soon.” Man jokes about the things that depress him, but he usually waits til...

Not Too Many Goals

How many goals should you have? Is there a limit? I've known people who said that they had a hundred goals. They were working their way thru the list and checking them off one by one. Good for them. I  could never do that. It's too many. How do you even keep that many straight? How do you build energy for them? Some people call a list like that a bucket-list. If that's what it is, it isn't so much a list of goals as plans for experience. That's very different. Goals require work. Goals require attention. Goals require a level of focus seldom afforded anything else. The discipline that takes limits the capacity anyone has for setting goals. We can only do so much. Of course, we aspire to do more. Of course we put lots of stretch into our goals and our list of goals. But, we can only do so many. I can't tell you what that number is. I find that 5 goals a day is a good number for me. Five achievable goals for each day and another 3 - 5 major goals that ca...

Forget What You Know?

Does it ever make sense to forget what you know? What if what you know is certain and true? What if you simply believe it to be true, but beyond your knowledge it isn't true at all? Sometimes learning requires the suspension of what we think is true. We need to be able to entertain a contradiction or paradox long enough to find a new perspective. Maybe we will change our mind, maybe we won't, but we give it air time. We let it breathe. We expand our world of possibilities just long enough to see if we're missing something important. Creatives are constantly willing to forget what they think they know to learn something far more useful. Something far more magical. Something far more brilliant. And, possibly something far more true. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes it does not and we are free to hold to what we already believe. But without trying, without the willingness to suspend judgement for long enough to see anew -- how will we ever know? -- Douglas Brent...

Developing Core Skills

Centered leaders know that their development is never finished. Learning how to use your strengths is important to building a prosperous future. Learning how to deal with your shortcomings prepares a leader for avoiding blind spots, hazards, and careless mistakes. Centered leaders are intentional and dedicated about the time they spend developing courage, clarity, creativity and compassion. Courage to speak and act with conviction, character and the will to accomplish a task or goal. Clarity to know which version of the truth people are sharing and to focus intentionally on a well understood mission. Creativity to find new answers, solve persistent problems, and introduce marvelous and pleasing new works. Compassion to consider the wants and needs of other people in everything that they do. To do no harm and where ever possible, to do as much good as they can. Balancing each of these four core skills is the very act of centering: finding that place where you operate at your peak and br...

Keep Going

  It's easy to get discouraged. Work, people, even life throws more challenges than we expect or ever ask for. Keep going. Obstacles will slow you down and pull on your momentum until it screeches like the bad brakes on an old Chevy. Keep going. Tasks will blur together in a fog of business that makes that vision ever harder to see and follow. Keep going. Keep going. Your work is important, and it's just beginning. -- doug smith

Move from "Me" to "We"

by David Spiegel "The secret to success is to know something nobody else does." -- Aristotle Here is another guest entry from my friend, David Spiegel. I especially like how he ties this together with one of John Maxwell's Words of The Day. As you read this, think about how you can move in the direction of turning what you do best from a "me" effort to a "we" movement. A s I was stretching this morning waiting for my trainer to finish up with his 7:30 clients, I had the opportunity to look around the gym. When I started working with Cris, the head trainer,he had appointments set pretty much back to back for himself.  There was another trainer who I saw occasionally. Today, there was Cris working with "the Killer Couple" (these two really work hard!). There were also 3 or 4 other trainers working with clients. Some individuals and some working with two clients at the same time.There was a buzz of activity as these tr...

No Silent Treatment

  One of the worst things I've ever done, and I do hope to get forgiveness on this sometime, is to give someone the "silent treatment." In anger, in frustration, in doubt, in fear, I've kept silent when someone needed to hear something very important. It might have been assurance. It might have been an explanation. It might have been encouragement. Maybe it was just the quiet humble truth. Why did I do that (and honestly, why so many times?) There is no reward. Withholding carries its own punishment: the unresolved, the unexplained, the unbound. Tell the truth. Tell it right away. Your heart needs the feeling, and your head needs the truth. -- doug smith

Compassionate Competition

Does business feel like dog eat dog? Does competition drive you and others to the edge of aggressive, gnawing, clawing feelings that leave you drained? Or, do you thrive on it? We do live in a competitive culture. When jobs took on a new scarcity it forced many people to view their opportunities from a limited point of view. If opportunities are limited, don't I have to act aggressively to seize those that come my way? Don't I have to defeat the competition convincingly and swiftly? At what cost? Not at the cost of our values. Not at the cost of our integrity. Not at the cost of our kindness. Fiercely competing does not force you to compromise your values.  Fiercely competing does not force you to treat people unkindly. It is possible to compete compassionately. Strive for your best outcome. Challenge other in your field of influence. Move forward assertively. AND act in ways that show kindness, consideration, and strength of character. At the end of the big gam...