Category Archives: Time Management

“The more balls you try to juggle, the more you’re likely to drop.”

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“The more balls you try to juggle, the more you’re likely to drop.”

—Mohit Pandey, The Scrabbled Thoughts

Image from Unsplash by Yi Liu

Did you know that you can become a lifetime member of the International Juggler’s Association for only $1,250? As a bonus, you can include up to five additional members of your family (if they live at the same address) at no additional cost. The world records for juggling various numbers of balls are:

# of Balls Record Time
3 12 hours, 5 minutes
4 2 hours, 46 minutes, 48 seconds
5 2 hours, 41 minutes, 27 seconds
6 25 minutes, 17 seconds
7 16 minutes, 25 seconds
8 1 minute, 13 seconds

EXERCISE:

How many balls are you trying to keep up in the air, and how many are dropping? To what degree have you already become a lifetime member of the association without paying the membership fee? What are the right balls, and the right number of balls, to put in your juggling rotation for an optimal life?

“If we wait for tomorrow to be yesterday, we’ll wait forever.”

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“If we wait for tomorrow to be yesterday, we’ll wait forever.”

—Stephen St. Amant, Marketer, blogger, artist

Image from Unsplash by Aron Visuals

How does today compare to yesterday, last week, last month, or last year?

To what degree have you accepted that the past is history and the future a mystery?

What did the good old days look and feel like for you? To what extent is it possible to go back and actually recapture your happiest of yesterdays?

Where do and don’t you have control or considerable influence on what tomorrow may be?

EXERCISE:

What can and will you do today that will help realize the possibilities of many better tomorrows in your personal and professional communities?

What might it cost if you wait or hesitate?

“No one wants to be the skydiver who pulled the rip cord too late.”

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“No one wants to be the skydiver who pulled the rip cord too late.”

—Eric Barker, author of Barking up the Wrong Tree

Image from Unsplash by Kamil Pietrzak

Where has procrastination, putting things off, or just a hint of hesitation resulted in your experiencing negative consequences? Perhaps you have missed an important professional or personal opportunity?

Although delays and inaction rarely have life-threatening impact, they can chip away at our overall success, fulfillment, and life satisfaction.

Alternatively, where has acting too quickly or jumping the gun resulted in false starts, penalties, or disqualifications from important events in your life?

What value could having a far better grasp on your personal and professional timing have on your future?

EXERCISE:

Consider picking up a copy of Dan Pink’s book, When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect  Timing – to glean a few nuggets of wisdom on this important life skill.

“When was the last time you had some ME time?”

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“When was the last time you had some ME time?”

—Author Unknown

Image from Unsplash by Caleb Frith

George Washington once said, “It is better to be alone than in bad company.”

These days it may also be better to be alone than in even good company.

To what degree is finding “Me” time a significant challenge for you? How often may this be due to your selfless, giving nature? Where are you burning the candle at both ends to serve and support others in your various communities?

What is this costing you? What may it be costing those you care about because you are often running on or near empty?

EXERCISE:

Do your own Google search for “Me Time” activities that suit you. Select at least one strategic activity for when you have one, five or fifteen minutes. For advanced activities look at longer blocks of time to fully recharge and be your best.

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only

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“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”

—Sir Francis Bacon, 16th Century Lord Chancellor of England

Image from Unsplash by Thought Catalog

I have a math problem for you on the subject of books. According to Google’s advanced algorithms, about 130 million books have been published in all of modern history.

Consider multiplying 130 million by the number of hours it takes you to read an average book, giving your reading speed. To keep it simple, let’s assume it takes you ten hours. Multiply 130 million by ten and you see that it would take you one billion, three hundred thousand hours to read all the books published in modern history.

Now let’s pretend you began reading at birth, and that, given advanced medical breakthroughs, you live to be 100.

If my math is correct, it would take 876,000 lifetimes to read them all – far more if you took time to sleep, work, eat, or do anything other than read.

EXERCISE:

As you examine your book tasting efforts, which new books, or perhaps a few oldies but goodies, are worth your valuable time in the years ahead?

Friday Review: Time Management

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FRIDAY REVIEW: TIME MANAGEMENT

How well do you manage your time? Here are a few time management-related posts you may have missed. Click the links to read the full message.

 

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

 

 

 

“There are people whose clocks stop at a certain point in their lives.”

 

 

 

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”

 

 

 

 

The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it

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“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”

—Sydney J. Harris, 20th Century American Journalist

Image of a man floating in water and reading a book

Image from Unsplash by Toa Heftier

Time is a funny thing. Among the priority topics in a coaching relationship it usually is in the top three to five items people wish to impact.

Billions are spent each year on all sorts of books, blogs, workshops, webinars, and seminars to help us all manage this elusive and seemingly scarce resource.

You are welcome to download my free workbook, Time Management Strategies and Tactics. Enter the password “BarryDemp” when prompted.

The reason for all this attention is that there is simply too many “to do’s” for the time available. We have all experienced being drained, as if we were a smart phone battery needing a recharge.

EXERCISE:

How can and will you allocate some of your precious time for relaxation and renewal of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies?

Please consider replying to this post regarding the actions you take and the difference it makes.

 

Friday Review of posts on TIME

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Friday Review: Time

What are your beliefs and practices relative to time?  Here are a few time-related posts you may have missed. Click on the link to read the full message.

 

“What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.”

 

 

 

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

 

 

 

“There are people whose clocks stop at a certain point in their lives.”

 

 

 

 

 

The bad news is time flies

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“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”

– Michael Altshuler, motivational speaker

Image of a Pilot in front of his plane

Photo by Kora Xian on Unsplash

I recently attended a coaching conference where a speaker, Jim Selman, shared his work on the topic of aging. I was surprised to see just how significant and universal the subject was for the majority of conference participants – including myself.

What does it mean to age well? What has many of us pursue the fountain of youth, through everything from plastic surgery to the next wonder drug?

How can we transform our views on aging, to impact our lives in the areas of health, happiness, self-expression, meaningful relationships, and the overall desire for purpose?

Exercise:

How will you pilot your life, given your answer to the question above, to make the most of the precious time that you have?