Category Archives: time management

drama, football, NFL, time management

How To Watch Football

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Ah, football season has returned. I love what football stands for: pure competition, where victory doesn’t go to the team with the most skill, but with the most perseverance. The tension and drama of the game tick higher and higher as the clock continues to tick down toward that final second.

Football’s life and breath are found in those final moments of the game. A team can be behind by 14 points with only 5 minutes left in the game, and still come up with a victory. In those last moments, every decision counts and perseverance is king. If they succeed, it is the come-back win at the end of the game that everybody talks about, no matter how incredible a touchdown pass earlier in the game may have been. And it’s that last second of the game that has changed the way I watch football forever.

You, see, I am now a 4th-quarter fan. By that, I mean I begin to watch my noon game at about 2:30. That is usually around the end of the 3rd quarter, beginning of the 4th. But that’s not to say that I’ve missed out on any of the excitement. Sure, I miss some athletic catches and some powerful tackles, but these are not the things that make football games great.

Although I enjoy football, the games are terribly long. I have a life to live, and can no longer devote 3 hours a week to following my favorite team through the season — but I can easily watch a single quarter every week. It’s the best of both worlds!

So, if you’ve caught the time management bug and can’t help but feel a little guilty when watching football (but can’t quite turn away), become a 4th-quarter fan. It truly is the finest way to watch football.

accomplishment, goals, prioritization, time management

3 Things: Time Management For Scatterbrains

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The Planning Trap

There are several books about time management, and millions of people have been able to use the information in those books to organize their lives and to schedule time for success.

But for some of us, organization and schedules are as clumsy as a goose wearing rollerskates. For some of us, implementing a new time management process represents not merely a change in habits or attitudes, but a change to the very essence of our being.

Getting Things Done Without Over-Organizing

What is a genetically unorganized person to do? I’ve struggled with many systems, tips and tricks over the years. Some of them actually worked beautifully for the very short time that I remembered to implement them. But I have discovered one method that works to keep me consistently on top of my to-do list and always working toward my goals. That method is the “3-Things” method.

The beauty of the 3-Things method is in its simplicity. At the beginning of the day (or week, or month), you decide what three things are the most important things you need to do. That’s it!

Start The Day Off Right By Committing To 3 Things

By taking a moment each day to review what you most want to accomplish, you can easily make time for them. Even as you are determining your three things for the, you become aware of the perfect times to do them.

Make Sure Your 3 Things Are Important

But I should offer a warning: the effectiveness of this method depends entirely on your ability to properly assess what three things are in fact the most important things you need to do. Therefore, it is vital that you are clear about what makes an action item “important”.

This is where it can be very handy to have goals that matter to you. For example, if you have three major goals that you want to accomplish, then choosing your three most important tasks for the day is simple: choose tasks that will move you closer to those goals.

So, what are the three most important things you must accomplish today?

budgeting, financial freedom, goals, money, money management, self improvement, time management, values

Financial Freedom Series 5 — Money

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Imagine Building A Car From Scratch

To understand the function of money, imagine what life would be like if you had to make everything from scratch. Like, for instance, a car.

It’s not impossible for a person to build his (or her) own car, but it may take the majority of his life to do so. First, he would have to study how cars work. Then, he would have to travel the world to collect the raw materials (not to mention the time to construct the vehicles needed to transport the raw materials). He then would have to refine the materials into usable components. And lastly, he would have to assemble the components.

Spending Money Often Saves Time

As you can see, building a car on your own can save you tons of money — but it would instead cost you thousands upon thousands of hours, perhaps even an entire lifetime!

In my previous article, I demonstrated that time is supremely valuable because it cannot be reclaimed. Well, here’s the dirty little secret: that’s not entirely true. We can save, store and exchange time through a convenient tool called “money”.

Your Paycheck Is Just Time Converted Into Money

If you don’t believe it, think about your primary source of income. Many of us get our income from employment. But why do we get paid for our work? It is because our employers know that there are other things we would like to do with our time. In essence, we exchange time for paychecks.

As the car example shows, spending money is like saving time. When you buy a car, you are saving yourself the thousands of hours it would take to build it yourself.

Some Spending Is More Valuable Than Others

But before you start buying everything you want under the guise that it’s saving you time, here’s the catch: not all time saved through spending money is valuable. If you do not make valuable use of the time you have saved (that is, managing your actions to build toward the completion of goals that are aligned with your values), the money is wasted. It can be valuable to pay somebody to mow your lawn if you use that time to do something that is important to your goals and values. If you pay somebody to mow your lawn while you sit on the couch and watch TV, you would have been better off mowing the lawn yourself. At least then you would have gotten some exercise!

Time Really Is Money, So Use It Wisely

And so, the old saying is true: time IS money. Or rather, money is time. Since time is so precious, it places an important duty on our shoulders to ensure we use it wisely. Money wasted is time wasted. Use your money to help you directly or indirectly accomplish those goals that help you live your values, and you will have used your money wisely.

The Complete Financial Freedom Series

  1. Cause and Effect
  2. The Value of Values
  3. Goals
  4. The Value of Time
  5. Money
financial freedom, goals, money, self improvement, time management, values

Financial Freedom Series 4 — The Value of Time

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Time Is An “Equal Opportunity” Commodity

Time is so commonplace that its value is often overlooked. The extraordinary thing about time is that each day is equally given to everybody (with the exception of death, of course). No matter who you are, or what happened yesterday, we get as much time as everybody else to make today better.

Time Is Valuable Because It Can’t Be Earned Back

Time is valuable in a way that nothing else is. Most things are valuable because they are rare. But time is valuable because of its most important aspect — we can’t get it back! Not only can we not get it back, but we HAVE to use it whether we wish to or not! Everything that we do is paid for in seconds and in minutes. Even doing nothing is paid in seconds and minutes! For this reason alone, we must cherish time. It is as important to our lives as the air we breathe.

The Secret Is to Control How We Spend Our Time

We may have no control over WHETHER we use our time or not, but we can control HOW we use our time. When there are many things that must be done, how can we gauge what is a good use of our time and what is not? The answer is as simple as looking at our goals and values. Anything that moves us closer to accomplishing goals that help us to live out our values is a good use of our time. Technically, anything else is not.

The Complete Financial Freedom Series

  1. Cause and Effect
  2. The Value of Values
  3. Goals
  4. The Value of Time
  5. Money