Monday, January 07, 2013

New Years, New Gears


New Years, New Gears

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?  Isaiah 43:19a


Wanna shift into high speed this New Year?  There is no time like the beginning of a year to start to think about ramping things up.  Maybe a better way to look at this is not so much in terms of speed but in terms of shifting gears; shifting into a new gear for a new year.

OK, so 2013 will provide you 8,760 hours, you can only use them once, how are you gonna do it?  Of course, there are things that demand your time.  So lets see what they are and then how much time we actually have…

Most people…
will sleep 7 hours a day which is 2555
That leaves only 6205
 work 8 hours a day (5 days a week or 260 days a year) which is 2080
That leaves only 4125
spend 3.5 hours a day eating/doing chores/caring for others which is 1277.5
That leaves only 2847.5
spend 2.5 hours per day driving which is 912.5
That leaves only 1935.5
spend 2.5 hours per day on leisure time (sports, tv, internet) which is 912.5
That leaves only 1023
spend an average of 50 minutes each day waiting which is 304
That leaves only 719
spend an average of 45 minutes in the commode (genders vary) which is 274
That leaves only 445

I’m sure I forgot some stuff and maybe you can even add something additional but the bottom line is this, WE ONLY GET 445 HOURS DISCRETIONARY TIME EACH YEAR.  Yep, that’s about 18 days.  Not much if you think about it. 

WHERE DO I FIND MORE TIME?

·         ZZZZZZ.  Is there a way to only sleep 6 hours and recoup 2 hours a day?  Probably not, we were designed for 7-8 hours of sleep each day and 1 day in 7 off completely (think Sabbath).  There are also lots of physical challenges related to sleep deprivation.
·         WORK.  Yup, this takes the most the time.  If you want to change the world, make your work count.  If you have a job that lets you change the world those 8 hours, awesome.  If not, try to find one.  If you are not the world changing type, make your 8 hours at work be productive and efficient and you can get promoted, make more money and enhance the rest of your time.
·         QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY.  An hour is only an hour in theory but an hour of quality time with someone you love is worth more than non quality (AWOL* time)
·         BE A DOER.  Don’t be that leisure time casual-don’t-wanna-change-the-world kinda person, make things happen.

PRIORITIES ARE BETTER THAN TASKS
Time management is a great thing to keep in mind this time of year but I recommend thinking more about priorities.  If we think more about who we are and what is important, daily tasks become easier.  An oversimplified version of time management is this:  1, Prioritize and 2, Delegate.
Priorities mean focusing on what is most important.  If you are thinking God, Family, etc, you are right. Here is the catch, most people know what is important but don’t dedicate a lot of brain power focusing on it or time doing it.
Here is an alliteration I use for my priorities; the first three are in order, the rest change seasonally.  Faith, family, friends, finance, fitness, future.  These are theory unless I live them daily and have them impact how I live my life.  Its one thing to say that faith is important but another to love my brother,  pray, help those in need, be patient with my kids or attend a worship service.

MAKE THE MINUTES COUNT (but think priorities)
When is all said and done there is way more said than done.  Above shows how we spend our hours, but if we start with minutes they add up.  Here are some tips

·         Always think about your priorities and roles.  These focus all other things.  I am a Christian, I am and Husband, I am a Dad, etc.

·       -  Krish Dhanam says 15 minutes early to work, 15 minutes not gossiping and wasting time, 15 early from lunch and 15 after quitting time is an hour gained each day.  That is 260 hours a year or the equivalent of 32 work days.

·        -  Plan!  Write your goals, tasks, desires and dreams down on paper, they are more likely to be accomplished when they are in writing.

·        -  Think relationships.  It is difficult to quantify an RIO on relationships.  To be brief, they are valuable, find time each day to cultivate them.  Like a little seed, they grow into big things.

·        -  Use your strengths.  Some people use too much time refining their weaknesses and neglecting their strengths.  Refine your strengths into superpowers and no one will care about your kryptonite.

·       -  Start small.  10 minutes a day can make a huge difference in things like exercise, praying or reading, you can reclaim over an hour a week.  How many chapters can you read in an hour?
Above all,  do it!  Just do it.


Here are some links that helped support this writing, they are fun and silly but worth a look at.Time wasters - http://blog.tempoplugin.com/2012/how-do-people-spend-their-time-at-work-infographic/
Online time - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/online-time_b22186

* A military term that stands for Absent With Out Leave.  I’ve changed it to Absent With Out Leaving or being present but not being engaged.  For example being at lunch with your child but being on the phone while they are on the iPad.

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