I’ve never been real good at keeping a schedule.  Now let me clarify for a moment.  That doesn’t mean I’m not on time it just means that I don’t keep a schedule.  When I think of a schedule I think of some sort of planner with every minute of my day mapped out.  To me that suffocating.  I keep track of the stuff I have to do like work, a doctor visit or a kids game.  That’s easy.  It’s important.  It’s the other time that I don’t plan for.  I sort of just let it happen.

What I’m finding is that time is either spent or lost.  Well, maybe it’s just always spent.  Sometimes on something worthwhile and other times on nothing.  Time is my greatest asset right now.  I have just as much as everyone else.  That’s a crazy concept right?  Bill Gates may have more money but you have the same 24 hours in the day.  What you choose to spend those 24 hours is probably a bigger difference maker than the money you don’t have.

In fact I would go so far as to say that if you invest your time in something or someone you’ll have some sort of return.  Actually, I guarantee it.  If you pick any pursuit or idea and invest time in it you will see a return.  I don’t know how big that return will be and I suppose that depends on how efficient you are with that investment.

As I look back at today I was effective during some of it and others you could honestly call a waste.  I guess rather than you I should call it a waste.  That seems so irresponsible.  I would never waste food, money or anything that I truly value.  Maybe that’s the real secret.  I don’t value my time.  I see it as a never ending thing that will just always be there. I guess maybe I’ve been living like I’ll always have more.  I think I’m realizing that’s not the case.

I mentioned before that I wanted to write on a consistent basis and I’ve found it very hard to do.  The reason it’s hard to do is because I don’t schedule it.  I don’t plan for it to take place in my “spare time”.  What a funny thought, spare time, like I have extra time that I don’t need.  So here I am at 1:30 in the morning because after binge watching The Defiant Ones I finally feel motivation to work.  Funny how it took me “wasting” 3 hours to want to finally put in some extra work.

I suppose it’s not a waste if it got me to write.  I could make the argument that it’s all part of my process but that goes back to efficiency and if this is my process I probably need to change some things around.  I need to make sure that I use all of my time wisely.  I guess in order to do that I should probably get some sleep so I can try to get to work at a decent time and not waste my whole afternoon.  With that in mind I’m going to bed but I’ll pick this up tomorrow….

It’s 11:30 am on Tuesday and I’m going to sneak in the rest of this post.  I probably should have gone to bed long before I did because I woke up late and surprise….lost time this morning.  Lesson learned, I think, and I’ll try to do better going forward.  There are some nights I have to be up late so I need to get to bed early on the nights I don’t.

I’m also going to schedule time each week for a blog post (likely sunday night), a vlog post (I’m thinking Saturday) and daily brainstorming.  That will likely happen when I first get home from work each day.  I also need to set time aside for exercise and family.  It almost sounds like too much but I think that’s only because I don’t make the most of my time.

So I’m going to make these changes and I want to challenge you to do the same. I don’t expect you to go and fill every minute of every day.  You could but that’s not realistic.  I think it will also be important to identify the things that are worth investing your time in.  So maybe we need to start with that.  What’s your goals right now?  What do you want to do to change your current situation?  If you can’t think of anything then don’t worry about scheduling your time.  If you can then find the top 3-5 and figure out what you need to do to make progress.

Maybe I’ll share what my schedule looks like when I get it nailed down.  For the meantime I also think I need to figure out exactly what I’m focussed on right now.  I have a lot of ideas floating around.  Some I can take action on now and others will be part of a later phase.  The trick with those is I need to make my time today worth while so I can have the opportunity for later endeavors.

Keep focused, keep grinding and don’t be afraid to fall.  Getting back up is great exercise for your core.  God bless.