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| $ 86,400 a day - $ 31.5M a year |
I often use this story to MBA students, senior executives or friends during coaching or mentoring sessions.
Imagine the following (nice) situation: Your bank is crediting your bank account every morning on 9:00am with $ 86,400. there are two rules attached.
1) You must have invested or spent the full amount before 9:00am the following day, so that the bank will credit your account again. No single dollar can be saved until later, you MUST spend.
2) The bank can stop the credit any day any time, unilaterally and without your consent.
Now close your eyes for a minute, and imagine what you would do with this daily amount...
***
The reality is that each of us is being granted 86,400 seconds per day, every morning no matter what. And each second is gone after 24 hours. And the account will be stopped at a very specific but unplanned moment.
So the ultimate question of life for anyone is: What do I do with this amount of seconds I get every morning, precisely 86 400 per day...
There is no magic recipe for efficiency or happiness, but I can say from experience discussing with thousands students, executives, friends, professors, spiritual leaders, athletes... that great TIME MANAGEMENT is one of the fundamental components of LIFE FULFILLMENT.
There are of course natural needs (foods, hygiene, sleep...) that consume a large part of our time, and which are unavoidable. SLEEP is actually one big differentiator between individuals. Some need more sleep, some need less. This is certainly a genetical gift (determined by the gene ABCC9), but it can also be trained, dominated, educated... Sailors or commandos give a good example of sleep management, being forced to sleep very little, and in short sequences. If you want to know more about sleep phases and needs, please see this wikipedia page, well written: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep
Beyond natural needs, it is critical to master time management whoever you are, and whatever you do in life... Otherwise time will take control of your days, your activities, your life, and ultimately your destiny.
In fact, time management has been recommended and preached for ages by our ancestors. You will even find some time management advice in the Bible, in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 "There is a time for everything and a season for every activity...". Worth a read.
In a nutshell, the best way to manage time is NOT to plan, to divide and to schedule... because this is doomed to fail... because you cannot predict all and anticipate uncertainty !
Rather, one should always be prepared for uncertainty, and be ready to welcome the unexpected. A good way to do this is to focus on work-life INTEGRATION : i.e. Do not split everything like work-life balance implies (33% time with family, 33% time at work, 33% time for social activities...), it does not work. Instead, our aim should always be to do everything 100% !
From today, start focusing on doing everything possible at your best, with radical optimism and full passion and enthusiasm. You will see that doing more and more everyday makes your 86,400 seconds worth and more fruitful.
A wise quote of Benjamin Franklin says: "When you want something done, ask a busy person"... There is truth in that old saying of the 18th century.
So: Let's get busy today ; Let's learn to sleep less ; Let's do more to invest our daily 86 400 seconds ; Let's take a few seconds to say thank you for this wonderful gift which is Time ; And let's do one more thing today than yesterday !
