Time use to be something that I never thought I needed to master…

Time by ToniVC

When Time Could Be Wasted

As a kid, time would just be rolling along, as I would read my comic books, or watch the 2nd or 3rd rerun of some no-value TV show, perhaps Seinfeld?  I use to let Time just tick away as I hoped the my money in investments would benefit from the near-magic effect of compound interest.

I would often naively try to kill time by playing video games both at my house and playing with, and against my friends.  The weekend would come, and I remember sleeping in until almost lunch sometimes, sleeping my way through three or four extra hours, just wasting time (jumped out to check the stock market results from yesterday, DOW is up 272, WOW!).

Yep, back then, time was a thing that took too long, and something that I wanted to slip by so I could drive, drink alcohol, vote, or forget about bad relationships of the past.

Now Time Needs To Be Controlled

This summer, while I accomplished many things that I wanted to fix or do, most of my “to-do” list didn’t get done.  Oh, I get the high priority tasks done (like fix the car so it runs), but some of the small cosmetic tasks had to get benched in my life.  I’ll probably be the crazy guy out in November mulching around my house.  (I just jumped out of this blog post to check my fantasy football score from this past weekend, I won, yay).

So why has time become a wild stallion in my life that I’m now trying to tame? 

As time passes, things and responsibility quietly accumulate (I heard a sounds in my son’s room, I investigate, but it was nothing) and start to steal some of your precious time.  Raising kids the best that you can take time, maintaining your house, reading the “Accept this terms” and other legal document reading requirements, maintaining friendships, and keeping hobbies , all require time (our dog heard me and is whimpering, so off I go downstairs to let her out).  Kids require a lot of time, but they are worth it.  I took my daughter to piano lessons yesterday, making sure that I took a book while I waited in the waiting area.

How To Mastering Time

For reasons above, I’ve decided to try to get a grip around time and to master it.  Below are some of the things I do to maximize both my life and time.

• During commute work time, I either 1.) Listen to audio books, 2.) Think about blog topics or 3.) Try to develop a task list for things to be accomplished during the day.
• As I mentioned above, (just let the dog back in), I like to take things to do during waiting time such as doctor office visits or taking the kids to practice and other such time sucking requirements in life.
• When mowing or doing other low thought chores, I like to think.  It’s a good way to come up with new ideas for hobbies (in my case it’s blogging).
• Pass-by tasking.  As we get ready to go somewhere and I need to wait on one of my kids to get their shoes, cloths, etc on, I’ll take out the trash or do some other quick non-important task.
• Lunch is no longer just about eating as I focus on things going on like blogging, or my fantasy football lineup, or reading programming and finances.  A close-by library has made this possible.  (My alarm clock just went off, I wonder why I even set it anymore…  I never sleep…)

These are the new ways that I’ve learned to both master and juggle time.

Readers, do you have any tricks for making the most of time, in situations where time would seem to be wasted?

Bests,

MR