Character Education Home Articles  Illustrations/Activities/Ideas  Lessons Intercom Insights  Links Membership  Hot Stuff

Time is Money
How Will You Spend It?

For December's meeting, we're talking about time management. It can make you or break you. In school, you can make decent grades, even while racking up tons of tardies. It's different in the work world. Try being late to work five times in the same month, even if you've got probable-sounding excuses. You'll be lucky if you still have a job. 

Try being late consistently to pick up your date. You're sending a signal that you don't value her. You'll be lucky if she doesn't drop you.  

Managing our time well at work tells our boss we're serious. Managing our time well with our friends tells them we care. Good time management is a key ingredient to success. How can we improve?

NOTE: You can always e-mail us your ideas or questions at seniors@character-education.info .

Tips On Managing Your Time

In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. (Bumper Sticker)

Introduction

It’s one thing to set bold, audacious, hairy goals; quite another to wake up each morning motivated to attack those goals. Just think of your last New Year’s Resolutions. How long did they last?

Successful people have faced many of the same distractions that derail us. Yet, they find ways to keep motivated and to overcome distractions. In this lesson we'll learn some of their tricks.

Making it Relevant: Before you proceed, think of a real goal you'd like to achieve, like one of those New Year's Resolutions you never carried through. Hints: learning to play an instrument, taking up a sport, taking Karate, lifting weights, holding down a job, passing a difficult class, etc. Now, look over some of the ideas below to see if they might help you follow through better in the future.

1 - Take the First Step

No matter how many times you’ve failed in the past, don’t be afraid to take on new challenges. As Confucius once said,

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.?

Many fail because they never started.  

2 - Don’t Go It Alone

Emerson wrote:

“Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.?/i>  (The Conduct of Life, 1860)

Discussion: What do you think Emerson meant by that statement? How can involving others in our goals keep us motivated and on track?

A high school student said,

The best thing that helps me achieve a goal is to have someone keep me accountable.

Food for Thought: Why do you think most of us think in terms of doing tasks ourselves rather than including others? What are some goals that you can pursue with others? How could getting accountability partners help you achieve your goals? 

3 - Do first things first.

I heard of the president of a company who needed help managing his time. A consultant gave him a simple suggestion:

“Make a list each morning of all the things you need to accomplish, in order of importance. Do the most important things first.?

When asked what he charged for this advice, the consultant said, “Nothing...for now. Just see what a difference this makes and pay me what you think it’s worth.? Months later, he received a check for thousands of dollars.

Charles Schwab was the successful president of Bethlehem Steel Company. Here's the practice that he considered the most important that he ever learned. He’d take five minutes to think through the tasks he should tackle the next day, then list them in order of priority. The next day, he would take on each task in the order he had set.

Food for Thought: What happens if we don’t start a day with a plan? Do any of you write lists each day? How does it help? Do you try to do them in order of priority?

4 - Use Your Time Wisely

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. (Will Rogers)

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States , was arguably one of the greatest leaders America has produced.  When he speaks on leadership, I listen. He once said,

Leaders are those who make the most of every moment, of every opportunity, and of every available resource.

It seems that for great leaders, every second has a period after it -- they know they'll never get a chance to use that second again. They can’t stand to waste time.  

People Story: Bill Gates, Microsoft’s super-successful leader, knew that he couldn't keep ahead of the computer industry while spending the time that most spend following the popular sitcoms and typical entertainment. To make sure he didn't get sucked into it, he didn't even own a TV until he was 29. Even then, it was just a monitor and a VCR given to him by a long-distance girlfriend so that they could watch the same movies and talk about them by phone afterwards. He made sure that he didn't get a broadcast tuner, so that he couldn't pick up TV stations. Knowing how enticing TV is, he couldn't risk wasting the time.

As if that weren't radical enough, he disconnected his car radio so that he could think better in the car. He took baths instead of showers so that he could accomplish things while the water ran and read while he soaked. (1)

Food for Thought: What are some things that you and others you know do to maximize your time?

Activity: What Could You Accomplish in Seven Years?

Some people say they simply don't have time to accomplish goals with all their responsibilities. That may be true for some, and we do need some chill time in our schedules. But most of us have more time than we think.

Want a shocker? Take the average amount of time that you watch TV per day or play video games per day, for example, two hours (below the national average). Do you realize that over a period of 60 years, you will spend the equivalent of 7 ?years sitting in front of the TV every waking hour of the day?! Imagine what a person could accomplish in 7 ?years! 

Doing the Math on Spare Time

One way to figure it: Two hours is 1/8 of the waking hours of a day. So 1/8 of all my waking time is spent watching TV. Thus, 1/8 of the waking hours of my 60 years are spent watching TV [60 divided by 8]. This gives me 7.5 years of time in which every waking hour of time was spent watching TV or playing video games.

Another way to figure it: 2 hours x 365 (days per year) = 730 total hours of TV per year. Divide this by 16 to get the total number of days of that year that I would have spent every waking hour (16 hours) watching TV (45.625 days). Multiply this by 60 to get the total number of 16 hour days I would have spent totally on TV over a period of 60 years (2737.5). Divide this by 365 to find the total amount of years I would have spent watching TV every single waking hour of each day.] I come up with 7.5 years of spending every waking moment watching TV!

So, what would you like to accomplish in 7.5 years? 1 - Earn a Doctorate? 2 ?Become an accomplished musician? 3 ?Master Web Design? 4 ?Become formidable at a sport? 5 - Or, simply watch 2 hours of TV per day?

People Story: In the year 1723, a seventeen year-old boy arrived in Philadelphia without a penny to his name. By age 42, he retired, wealthy. Few men, before or since have ever been as successful in life or in business as Benjamin Franklin. He gave credit for his many inventions and business successes to a list of 13 principles that he followed. Principal #6 involved his use of time. Here it is:

Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

More Hints on Effective Time Management

5 ?Work Hard

For every person who climbs the ladder of success, there are a dozen waiting for the elevator. (Kathy Griffith)

Have a purpose in life, and having it, throw into your work such strength of mind and muscle as God has given you. (Thomas Carlyle)

6 ?Don’t Get Discouraged

You've got to get to that stage in your life when going for it is more important than winning or losing.  (Tennis Champion Arthur Ashe)

Make sure that your short-term goals are doable. Remember, even small amounts of time devoted to a goal each day add up to a lot over time. If you keep failing, you might want to adjust your goals.  

Action Point

Activity: Let’s do something to ensure that our great plans don’t become just another New Year’s Resolution. If we’re convinced that achieving short-term goals is a major key to achieving our dreams in life, let’s each take one goal and find someone to hold us accountable to work on it each week.

Additional Resources:

Check out Day-Timer’s articles on time management at  http://www.daytimer.com 

Helpful articles on managing your time to succeed at school from the University of Waterloo, Canada - http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocs/Study/study_skills.html 

Another helpful article: http://www.watch-inc.com/articles/time-management-tips.html

Helpful time management article: http://www.tsuccess.dircon.co.uk/timemanagementtips.htm

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1) Illustration by Steve Miller. Source: Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews, Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented An Industry - And Made Himself The Richest Man in America, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994, pp. 199,200 ) also, USA Today Weekend, p. 5.)