Time is More Valuable than Money

Lately, I’ve come to appreciate my time even more than usual. During the last few months I’ve been involved in some projects that have caused me to give up total control of my schedule. I always felt that I used my time wisely, managing work, family, health, my faith, and everything else that is part of normal life. But recently I had to adjust to my new schedule and do things a little differently. During my free hours (which changed daily), I had to make the best of it. I found myself fitting things in when I could, not always at the most ideal hour, but still getting them done effectively.

During this time, when every spare minute was precious, I thought about how I did things before. Was I really being efficient with the hours in the day? Was I really taking advantage of all of the resources available to me?

Time is probably the most valuable asset we all have. Think about it for a moment. A single minute can be the difference between life and death. A single second can be the difference between someone winning a gold or silver medal. A single hour could be the last hour that you spend with someone very special. So how come we spend so much time wasting?

I want you to get your journal or a piece of paper and make a list of all of the things that you have done over the last two hours. How many of them were productive, where you actually achieved an outcome? See, each one of us wants to get things accomplished, but we end up wasting most of our time. When I was young, I wasted so much time doing this, doing that, opening up my diary and closing my diary, pretending to work.

Here are what I believe to be the top five time wasters, the things that really hamper you from successfully using your time:

1. Trying to do everything at once.

2. Trying to do everything yourself.

3. Being afraid to say, “No.”

4. Distractions (Telephone, Internet)

5. Procrastination

Take the list of time killers above, and rewrite them in your journal in the order that they affect you the most. Maybe your list has procrastination at the top. Are you guilty of putting things off until you’re under pressure to get it done?

Now that you have your new list, take the top three time wasters and next to each one, write two strategies you can try immediately to help conquer them. Keep a log of your progress and remember, if something’s not working, change it up and try again!

You can. You will. It's YOUR Choice.