Thank Goodness It's Monday #342

TIME IS NOT MONEY

BUT …

How do you value your time?

One of the classic tools for “teaching” Time Management has been the process of dividing an annual dollar value (say salary or commission plus benefits, bonus, options, etc.) by some manipulated time factor (say, 60 hour weeks for 50 weeks a year = 3000 hours) to produce a dollars-per-hour outcome that’s attention riveting.

Maybe you’ve done this in the past? The idea is to convince you that every moment is precious.

Congratulations!  I don’t think you’re so naïve that you need to do that exercise. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it’s not particularly worthwhile.

While time is valuable and should be invested wisely, it’s not always a dollar-and-cents (or, allowing the bad pun, sense) issue.

Time is not money – at least not purely money. You can’t save it or store it, lend it or borrow it.  Sure, it has worth.  But time’s worth is not always tangible.

So I try to not use words such as spending, killing or wasting when talking about time.

You, too? Sometimes these verbs do slip into our time conversations and we’re not always completely successful in monitoring how we talk about time.  But the key here is to be aware and understand the way you think about time.

What Time IS: Time is a resource that each of us possesses in equal amounts.  Everything has a price and that price is time. Like money, we may do many things with it.

But only one thing makes sense since, unlike money, you can seldom take steps that gain you more time. You can only take steps that enable you to use the finite amount of time you have in alternative -- hopefully more productive and satisfactory -- ways.

So now it’s time to ask—

How Are You Investing Your Time?

Like your other investments, your time should never be tied up in one place – unless that’s what makes you happiest in which case you don’t need my input (or desperately do, but are hardly going to be convinced by this TGIM).

There are three big opportunities for dispersing your allocated time. They are --

• your Money Time
• your Family Time
• your Private Time

TGIM Takeaway: One of the reasons it’s worthwhile to think of your time divvied up into these three compartments is that it enables you to --

Confront the “robbing Peter to pay Paul” problem. If you’re feeling time pressure, that feeling probably comes from guilt about investing/spending too much time in one compartment to the detriment of time allocated to another compartment.

So now let’s break it down a little. Despite the brush off we gave to the “time is money” concept, a lot of people are focused on enhancing their money situation.  So let's review that first.

● Cash in on your Money Time. Money Time is not just weekdays 9-to-5. It’s the time within that time.

Here’s the deal: When you have a Money Time mentality you realize that more effective management of that time of your life makes your money-making activity more effective.

So, for example:

??? What times of the day are you most effective? No doubt there are morning people and definitely-NOT-morning people. When are you sharper, more alert and focused? What are you doing then?

??? What time (times?) of the day is your per-hour money-earning rate highest? Do you just putter around the office in the AM getting psyched to close that big deal over lunch then ride that high to prospect through the afternoon so you can do the same tomorrow? Then how might you use the morning more effectively?

??? Have you thought about which activities during the day bring you the highest return on time invested? Is working your connections at morning networking meet ups a can’t-miss money generator? Or have your quiet-office after-hours social network postings become your preferred way of starting the relationship ball rolling? How can you do more of the more profitable activity?

TGIM Takeaway: Certain Money Time activities are not completely in your control all of the time, of course.  And you can’t necessarily go full tilt from dawn to dark. But with heightened Money Time awareness, you can make more effective use of it than you do now.

● What do you do with Family Time? Here’s some of the best advice you’ll ever be reminded of:

When you are with your family, be with your family.

Sure, this sounds old fashioned. 

But it works.

If you are married with children or in a significant relationship, when it’s Family Time, and you don’t take a business phone call or jump on some Money Matter text message, it tells the people you care most about – that you truly care most about THEM!

By the way: For Time Management purposes “Family” can be a big, inclusive group of people that you care about in a special way. So, although they may not literally be blood-relation family members, when you have quality time with certain other people --

Be There. It can have a tremendous impact on them – and you.

And speaking of you –

● Let’s talk about managing Private Time. This is one of the most critical time investments. If you feel stress and overtaxed in areas of your life, you really need to assess what you’re doing for you.

It’s not greedy to set aside Private Time; decompressing time; refueling time.

What do you do? One great Private Time tactic is to make appointments with yourself, for yourself. What happens then is for you to decide (after all, it is your Private Time).

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Prioritize Private Time based on what you love to do, what makes you feel great about yourself, and by what you can do on your own to re-energize and re-focus your inner-self, priorities and goals.

Watch this: Understand that Private Time appointments you set are non-negotiable. Hold them in high-priority status. This yours-alone time is as important as Family Time, Money Time or any other time-with-others that you value.

Triple Payoff: Well-invested Private Time maximizes your energy and effectiveness in the time you dedicate to your Family and Money.

I hope you found today’s TGIM useful in all three areas.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time: For that’s the Stuff Life is made of.” Benjamin Franklin (1706 -1790) advised that in Poor Richard’s Almanack, June 1746.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #341

WHAT TIME WOULD IT BE

IF ALL THE CLOCKS WERE STOPPED?

Odd thought isn’t it? Actually, it’s an old Zen saying. (Are there new Zen sayings?) I’m using it here to set up the more prosaic question – 

How do you think about time? 

If you’ve been to any event I have been involved with that touches on Time Management you have probably seen a visual that has the number 168 on it.  

That represents the number of hours each of us has every week. 

Why a week? In the context of how you feel about the way you invest your time, a week is probably the best standard unit of time to consider because it encompasses all the challenges to how you satisfactorily allocate this finite resource. 

Stuff happens, of course. The occasional hectic day or overbooked morning happens.  You can’t judge or run your life by that. 

But how you feel about your 168 is a pretty good benchmark for how you manage the bulk of your time and how that management might be improved. 

Time management with a difference.  Unlike most teachers of time management, we are not going to burden you with the task of keeping a time log; you know, one of those “note everything you do for a week in quarter an hour increments” lists. 

We feel, as you probably do, that it’s largely a waste of time.

You know where the time goes.  If you don’t, and you’re not happy with the way you feel about how you spend your time, simply rewind one recent mental movie of the time you feel dissatisfied about. 

Then play it back. It doesn’t take a detailed Time Log to recall the business meeting you never should have committed to … that started late and rambled on without an agenda or the facts needed to make decisions … wrecked your plans to finish your budget tasks on office time … made you late for your kids’ play date pick up and team practice … put you in the doghouse with your spouse … and kept you up way past midnight doing office work that should easily have been completed when that idiot meeting was going on! 

Got it?  Good.  So let’s be honest about your time allocation and -- wasting no more time covering familiar ground -- move on. 

As this New Year gets rolling, have you been wondering how you can fit it all in?

It’s not uncommon.  We all have a tendency to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and in the moments that seem, in afterthought or hindsight, to have stolen our time.

People tell us all the time that they are “Busy 24/7.”

Oh, yeah? Then answer this: 

Busy doing what?

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?  Time flies. You start the week with a “To Do” List and the best intentions.  And before you know it, the 168 hours have gone by. 

In a way that might seem like a good thing, right?  It is – 

• If …
• Make that a Big “If” …
• In fact, HUGE “IF” 

-- IF you're accomplishing your objectives and moving toward your goals. 

Oh yeah: Goals. Didn’t you end 2011 and begin 2012 with resolutions and goal setting as a priority?  And although maybe you were not fully aware of how the process would proceed, now that we’ve begun to talk about it, perhaps you realize –

Your Goals

needed to be in place

so that you can

Prioritize Your Time Activities

around them. 

We’re 30 days into 2012.  This is a wake-up call. 

If you are committed to having your Best Year Ever, this is the time to evaluate your activities, your schedule, and your priorities to make sure that your Goals and your Time Management Strategies are properly aligned. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: It’s when you are acting without purpose that you waste the most time. Fight to link everything to your goals. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Ask, “Is what I’m doing this minute moving me measurably closer to my goals?” 

Do The Right Thing. You must have the courage, integrity, and character to “do the right thing” for yourself and your goals, in spite of time pressure you feel to do other things. 

What’s right?  Often you’ll sense when “the right thing” is or isn’t happening.  Usually a “gut feeling” tips you off to the rightness of how you’re investing your time and your actions. 

Still, if you feel pressured to use your time one way -- and you don’t want to rely solely on instinct -- use of these – 

Empowering Time Questions

Get in the habit of asking the following 4 Key Questions.  While they may seem familiar in some respects, they encompass subtly significant differences in how you think about using your time.  They can effectively direct and focus your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions. 

Key Question #1:

What is the most valuable use of my time RIGHT NOW? 

This is the perfect question to ask whenever you’re unsure about what to work on next … or if you are challenged by an unexpected interruption … or when your “gut feeling” suggests you are not making good use of your time. 

Key Question #2:

What – ULTIMATELY – am I trying to achieve? 

Ask this in order to bring your thinking back to your real objective and goals.  It’s a reminder to not get sidetracked or caught up in trivial pursuits or bogged down striving for an unnecessarily perfect outcome. 

Key Question #3:

What am I giving up in order to do what I’m doing? 

Acknowledge the often-overlooked Universal Law of Decision Making: When you choose to DO something, you also automatically choose to NOT DO everything else you could have done at the time.  Make the conscious choice – or make the necessary changes – to invest your time in what really matters. 

Key Question #4:

Should I continue to do this? 

What distinguishes this question from the earlier ones that may seem like it is that, at its core, it’s focusing on what to STOP DOING rather than what to start.  This is the Q for you if you suspect you’re wasting time on something that should be finished by now or stuck and spinning your wheels in a time stealer that no longer serves your long-term goals. 

Make it a habit.  At first, you may have to frequent remind yourself to ask these questions about how your time is being used.  So it might even be useful to write them on a 3x5 card. Then put it in your pocket with your goals (you do have your goals there, right?) … or sticking out from under your phone … or in your desk drawer where you’ll come across it at the appropriate moment.  Eventually, if you keep asking consistently, the questions will become a habit that serves you for the rest of your life. 

Uh oh. Look at the time. (No Zen clocks around here.) Thanks for investing some of your time today in this TGIM. 

Looking forward to next time. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com  

P.S.  “The thief to be most wary of is the thief who steals your time.” Source unknown.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #340

ENTER THE DRAGON!

(YEAR OF THE …)

So, are you feeling lucky?

Chinese Zodiac lucky – not Clint Eastwood or Google-search lucky.

Perhaps you should be. Today, according to the Chinese lunar calendar based on a cycle of 12 years each of which relates to an animal sign, marks the beginning of –

The Year of the Dragon. 恭喜发财– transliterated in some places as Gung hay fa choy in Cantonese – is one simplified greeting roughly equivalent to “Happy New Year.”

Broadly speaking the 15-day Lunar New Year celebration just begun is chock-a-block with wishes for luck and good fortune, growth and prosperity, good health and longevity, harmony and togetherness.

And as I understand it, The Year of the Dragon focuses particularly on luck.

As luck would have it … Luck is a subject I’ve thought about. As, at one time or another, has probably everyone who ever existed.

In my completely unscientific survey of the info readily available (not all the 750 million options immediately accessible by Googling the word, of course, but …), I conclude that there are a lot of folks out there who –

Rely on luck. For example, it seems as if more than half the famous or even semi-famous person quotes about “luck” acknowledge its role in the success of the person quoted.

Good luck and Bad luck. Events that have worked for them or against them. They talk about happenstance … chance … the right moment … the factor beyond control … good fortune … about being in the right place at the right time.

However …

Those who ascribe some magical, beyond-my-control, Lunar-New-Year begins, or stars-align-to-make-it-happen quality to luck don’t get my endorsement.

The ‘fortuitous” part of the definition of “luck” just doesn’t work in my calculation.

Luck: The fortuitous happening of fortunate or adverse events.

Fortuitous: Happening by accident or chance; unplanned.

So, with due respect and apologies to the cultures who eagerly anticipate and celebrate the especially lucky aspects of The Year of the Dragon –

I’m not counting on an auspicious lucky new beginning today.  For me, almost any astrological stuff is –

Beyond understanding.  I confess I do look at my horoscope in the ink-on-paper newspaper. And I’ve got the daily Libra popping up on my computer home page. I figure, at the least, they are well-intended advice.

I’m certainly open to that.

So I read the transmitted wisdom with the fascinated knowledge that there is guidance to be gleaned in the cryptic messages (although that it is celestial and unwavering universal is highly suspect to me).

And that leads me, at this auspicious new beginning of The Year of the Dragon, to this –

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Good fortune, growth and prosperity, good health and longevity, harmony and togetherness are the result of the individual effort each of us makes to bring them into our world.

The balance of all those famous and semi-famous folks sharing their experience via the quoted word insist on this view.

• They conclude that luck is not chance. It is cause and effect.
• They conclude that luck comes only after preparation.
• They conclude that luck is having the proper frame of mind.
• They conclude that luck is being alert when the opening comes along.
• They conclude that luck is realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.
• They conclude that luck is the residue of design.
• They know that luck is hard work.

We make things happen. To us and for us. To paraphrase Cassius, the nobleman, speaking with his friend, Brutus, in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar:

"The luck, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves ….”

TGIM Takeaway: The golden opportunity you and I seek is in us. It is not in luck or chance. It is not in our environment or even in the help of others. It is in ourselves alone.

To be fair I’ll allow that there remains an element of chance that is ever present in our lives. But as we’ve said, luck is not chance. And even if it were, as Louis Pasteur famously observed, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

(What Pasteur actually said was “Dans les champs de l'observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés” which translates as “In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” But the simplified version seems sexier.)

As the “elder” co-creator with my buddy Eric Taylor of the Empowerment Group’s Best Year Ever Program! I feel obliged to commemorate any “New Year” observance and tie it to our message that –

Anytime is the right time to begin Your Best Year Ever!

Enter The Year of the Dragon with a mind prepared to make what you wish for so.

Our fate is not in the stars. The future is in our own hands. Self-improvement is the precursor to all improvement. Start today. We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work. There’s never been a more auspicious time.

Gung hay fa choy! Get started on Your Best Year Ever! NOW.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  “Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 -1832) said that.

Remembering Great American Music Makers

Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes

and

Jamesetta Hawkins.

Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes
(December 28, 1921 – January 17, 2012)
better known as Johnny Otis.

“I get a wave of pride in America when I look back at what we’ve accomplished in the field of music.” Johnny Otis said that.

Jamesetta Hawkins
(January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012)
better known as Etta James.

"I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture." Etta James said that.

CELEBRATE BEN’S BIRTHDAY

Celebrate Ben Franklin's birthday, January 17, 1706.

He lived to age 84 following the 13 Virtues he spelled out when he was 20, namely:

1.    Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

 Benjamin Franklin.
Marble bust
  by Jean-Antoine Houdon:
1778

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

BTW: Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he would work on one and only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance". While Franklin did not live completely by his virtues and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point; in his autobiography Franklin wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit.BTW: Franklin didn’t try to work on them all at once. Instead, he would work on one and only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance."

While Franklin did not live completely by his virtues and, by his own admission, he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man, contributing greatly to his success and happiness . And it's been suggested that this is why he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point in his autobiography.

Franklin also wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit."

Sow these seeds and, perhaps, so shall ye reap.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S.  “The doors of wisdom are never shut.” Can you guess who also said that?

Thank Goodness It's Monday #339

LIFT YOUR VOICE AND …

In 1900 a school principal in Jacksonville, Florida -- James Weldon Johnson -- wrote a song for a group of schoolchildren to sing in honor of Lincoln’s birthday. His brother, music teacher John Rosamond Johnson, helped write the music.

That song was titled Lift Every Voice and Sing.

Eventually the brothers sent the song to a New York publisher and, so the story goes, thought little more about it.

But the public found it hard to forget. Children in the South, and gradually throughout the United States, continued to sing it. It became a popular selection for church choirs -- a tradition that continues today.

Perhaps you know it or recognize it. Here’s the first verse:

     Lift every voice and sing
    Till earth and heaven ring,
    Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
    Let our rejoicing rise
    High as the listening skies,
    Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
    Sing a song full of the faith that the
    dark past has taught us,
    Sing a song full of the hope that the
    present has brought us,
    Facing the rising sun of our new day
    Begun let us march on till victory is won.

James Johnson went on to many more accomplishments: composed more poetry, wrote a novel, was appointed U.S. consul to Venezuela and later Nicaragua. In 1920, he became executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP adopted Lift Every Voice and Sing as its official song.

And during the American Civil Rights movement Lift Every Voice and Sing became even more closely associated with Dr. Martin Luther King whose contributions we acknowledge today.

Music to my ears. As MLK Jr. Day approaches, my thinking about the commemoration invariably turns musical. I recall the heyday of the struggle for racial equality as a time informed by the music it engendered as well as the anthems it put forward. People came together and expressed themselves and shared their ideas and ideals through music.

Songs of unity and songs of protest.

Songs to incite and inspire and empower.
Songs to agitate and songs to soothe.
Songs that challenged and songs of solace.
Marching  songs … Peace songs … Freedom songs.

Name that tune. You can, easily. See them as persuasion or propaganda, no matter where you were or how you felt on the issues – or “are” or “feel” even today – you can’t deny the power and influence of the musical messages, especially in the 1960s and ‘70s.

• Lift Every Voice and Sing
• We Shall Overcome
• Eyes on the Prize
• What’s Going On?
• Which Side Are You On?
• Blowin’ in the Wind
• Give Peace a Chance
• Revolution
• Peace Train

And more, of course. Many, many more.

You might even consider the Jimi Hendrix rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner or the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen in this context of “Message Music.”

And speaking of a message: So what is the TGIM/MLK Jr. Day “message” in all this?

I think it's this challenge:

What beat do you march to? What’s the meaning of the musical medley you carry in your head and heart? Do you convey it to others in your daily behavior?

Getting a message heard is hard despite being in a digitally interconnected world. The busy folk around us are deeply absorbed in their own mishegas.

In our mp3, ear-bud plugged-in world the theme songs we embrace are increasingly “for our ears only.” Sure, maybe we broadcast a bit of ourselves via a favorite ringtone or fan shout out on social media. But precious few of us, it seems to me, lift our voices anymore to share the fundamentals that we imagine define us.

So maybe Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a good time to take a cue and clue from the anthems of the Civil Rights era.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds … Won’t you help to sing, another song of freedom ...” In 1979 Bob Marley sang that in his Redemption Song (some lyrics of which were inspired by a speech pan-African orator Marcus Garvey gave in 1937.)

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Lift your voice. Go tell it on the mountain. Let your little light shine. Keep your eyes on the prize; your hand on the plow (and hold on).  A change is gonna come.

In the wide world of inspirational MLK Jr. quotes, there’s this:

“Our lives begin to end

the day we become silent

about the things that matter.”

I’ll end this TGIM heeding that wise counsel. I hope you will too.

Speak up about the things that matter to you.

Sing out! Join me. “I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around.”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  Shedding a little more light: If you’re not already suffering from MLK Jr. media overkill, click through here and invest 4 minutes in a visual tribute set against a very appropriate 1991 James Taylor song that’s been playing on my mental jukebox for days.