Steve the Owl's Blog

Hi, everyone! It has been quite a while (three weeks) since my last blog post. This is because of something that I have been learning lately that I am seeing in action as we speak, and that is the need to find your balance.

Changes

As some of my faithful readers may remember, I started my new job teaching Religion in the World at Temple University about a month ago. This is a job that I have wanted for this phase in my professional life as I work toward my Ph.D. (I am still working my business, but my goal has never been to quit working a job, but to make enough money from my business to be able to have the freedom to teach wherever I want without worrying too much about my paycheck. In other words, like most good Protestants, I want to be able to work because I want to rather than because I have to ) for a very long time.

Needless to say, it is very different from my previous pace of life, where my biggest work has been trying to find time to post for my blog or look for work (or, when I was doing campaign work, to find a few hours a day to work on the campaign). Now, considering that I am still working the campaign job until early November (although with fewer hours to accommodate my teaching) and taking classes, all while brushing up on my foreign languages (I’m still waiting to find out if I passed the German test. If I did, it’s on to French.) which, needless to say, makes it a little bit more difficult to figure out when to fit time to do the things that I normally did based on my previous activity load. Sadly, my blog seemed to take the hit. (I’ve got plenty of ideas on backlog, but I just don’t have them written down yet, so expect to see a lot of posts soon.)

What Can You Give Up?

This was a question that I weighed last week as I looked at my copy of the Challenge to Succeed Workbook based on four-CD audio set by Jim Rohn. In this section of the workbook, it had me write down everything that I did not counting work, sleep, or the time it takes me to get to work. I was surprised at how much time I was leaving on the table. Looking through my schedule, I found 16 hours a week that I could easily give up in order to build value in my life and still enjoy plenty of leisure time. So, with that in mind, I decided that it was time to renew my efforts to continue my conversation with you, the reader, and I made a commitment to write at least three new blog posts a week, with a gap of no more than three days between posts (I am counting a day as when I wake up, rather than midnight-to-midnight, so it is possible that a gap could appear if I write late at night, but three days is the limit).

This is possible only because I looked at my life and realized that there were things that I wanted to do, and I wanted to make sure that I was using my time more effectively in the process. It isn’t about doing more or doing less, but finding a balance.

How do you find a balance between your priorities in life?

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I’ve read a lot of posts about the nature of time, and I’ve written more than once about the nature of time management. All of this work has led me to the following question: is what we do on a regular day building business or adding more busy-ness?

What is the Difference?

As many of you who follow my blog posts know, one of the biggest unrealized goals that I am working on now is running a five-minute mile before I turn 40. (I have eight years and 8 1/2 months left to go for this one, but I’ll probably be able to make my first serious attempt at a five-minute mile in 2013 or 2014, as I’m at 7:45.36 as of my last time trial.) While researching training plans for my running, I came across The Daniels Running Formula. In this book, Jack Daniels, a Ph.D. who writes about running from the perspective of exercise physiology. In the book, he said something about running that I think applies well to the world of business:

With every run, you should ask yourself, “How does this run fit into my larger running goal?”

I think that this is a great way of thinking about things for the world of business. There are times where we see the next big idea and we run to it, but as we do that, sometimes we find out that we are stretching ourselves too thin, and never really getting things done for anything. For this reason, I think that it is a great idea to periodically examine the things that we do, and ask ourselves how they meet our ultimate goals. If it doesn’t fit, or it fits better than something else, it may be time to focus on business rather than busy-ness.

What do you do to deal make sure that you are building a business rather than increasing your busy-ness?

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For some time, I have been interested in the world of personal development and time management. I have also been interested in the nature of success, and one of the things that I have heard over and over again is how important reading is to our success. So, with that in mind, I’ve come to realize one thing that will help with both things, and help out in other ways as well.

The Simple Solution

If you live in an area that has public transportation, use public transportation for the occasional commute. I found this side effect out this past fall when I went to my temporary job in Center City. For those of you not familiar with Philadelphia, we do not have an area that we call “downtown,” but our closest equivalent is Center City. Trying to drive in Center City is an absolute nightmare. Because it is older than a lot of other parts of Philadelphia, its streets are very narrow, it is very difficult to find a parking meter, and even if you do, it is ridiculously expensive. For that reason, unless there is a drop-off or a pick-up, a lot of people decide to take public transportation instead.

So, when I went to my job this past fall, I decided to take a book with me and read while I was on my way to and from work. When I did this, I found out that I gave myself a lot of extra time because I was bunching my time. (In my previous post on The Other 8 Hours, I outlined the principle of bunching, namely that someone can multitask by doing a head activity and a body activity at the same time. One of these examples involves doing paperwork while doing laundry.) If you take the bus or the train, you have reduced travel to a strictly body activity except for the extent that you have to make sure that you get off at the correct stop. For this reason, if you bring a book to read, you can devote time that you would not normally have to this purpose.

The Results

I decided to try to do this when going to school as well after my wife and I decided to simplify our life by going from a two-vehicle family to a one-vehicle family. Going to and from class using public transportation takes about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how long I have to wait for the bus or for a transfer. Because I have learned speed reading techniques (although these are somewhat interrupted by being sure to listen for the stop announcement), I can easily read as much as 40-80 pages on my daily commute. If I’m reading a 200-300 page book while using public transportation, that means that I can read it in 3-8 days. Considering that I use public transportation for school 3-4 days a week, 30 weeks a year, this is an extra 4-10 books that I have read by year’s end, and that is just when I use it to go to class.

There is also the added bonus of using public transportation being more environmentally-friendly than driving a car, even one with good gas mileage. In a city my size, there are a lot of times when I drive that I have to drive for several minutes extra just to find a parking space. Because I don’t have that to worry about anymore, I also save time depending on where I am going and its proximity to public transportation. I realize that there are times when public transportation is not helpful for those seeking to manage their time because of the infrequency of the route, and the distance from the route. However, if you look, you can find simple solutions that will give you a lot of extra time.

What simple solutions do you use for your time management?

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Recently, I had an unofficial and accidental experiment. As you may remember from an earlier post that I have been working on my time management skills. I have also thought abuot the question of what I can do to improve on the things that I am working on in life.

One of those examples of ways to be more effective comes from Angela Paige, who found something by Brian Tracy talking about the little things that we can do to really improve our prodcutivity just by making small changes every day. The first, the Golden Hour (reading for an huor after waking up), was not difficult for me at all because of my bookworm nature. However, the more difficult for me was to begin to get to-do lists together.

The Problem

My biggest difficulty in daily planning comes from the fact that I tend to like to fly be the seat of my pants and be a little more spontaneous, thinking about the events in my head. However, this often leads to procrastination, and things on my list getting crossed off. So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to break this cycle once and for all by buying a daily planner.

I have seen some of the more ornate ones that were very expensive, but because many of my efforts to plan have ended after a few days of frustration, I decided that it would be better for me to get something simple and then worry about getting one with bells and whistles later. Knowing that a weekly planner would not help with my goal, I decided to get a daily planner. It did not have everything that I was looking for, but it did have enough lines to help me get a starting point.

The Results

I must admit that I have not used the daily planner every day, but I have learned some valuable lessons. First of all, you have to pick a time that works for you. For me, the best thing to do is to put all of my appointments for the week in on Sunday night, and then fill in the rest of the details the night before. If you don’t do this, it won’t get done.

However, I learned something that was even more interesting: on the days I didn’t fill in my daily planner, I left a lot of things on the table; on the days when I did, barring technical or logistical problems, I was able to do every single thing on the list. For me, I think that it is because there is something very powerful about committing your goals to paper. Maybe it reinforces it, maybe it is a Law of Attraction thing, or maybe it just increases your commitment, but I know that it works. So, if you are trying to get things done, maybe you should start small with a to-do list, and then go to a basic planner, and you will find something that works for you and brings you one step closer to meeting your goals.

Have you ever known people who seem to have energy that you can only dream of? Have you ever wondered why some people are able to be much more productive than others? One of the best books that I have read that sums up everything about the need to make the best use of our time in order to live the life we want is The Other 8 Hours: Maximize your Free Time to Create new Wealth & Purpose by Robert Pagliarini.

How Much Time Do You Need?

A lot of people in the world of network marketing keep their day jobs. This is something that Pagliarini advocates in his book. In this case, you may be arguing that you are totally exhausted by your day job and you can really do is just unwind at the end of the day and relax. If you are exactly where you want to be, this is just fine. However, if you want something else, the time do that is the time between work and sleep. Pagliarini argues that devoting more time to things that build us up is the only way to have the life we want.

There are several ideas that I think are very interesting in the book to get people started. One of them is something that he calls “boosting,” or finding a job with little-to-no effort required where someone is present. For college students, sitting at the sign-in desk at the dorms or a computer center is an option. For others, working as a clerk at a low-traffic hotel or at a fitness center where you can use the time sitting there to read. This is something that I think is valuable for someone who wants to get involved in business, but is looking for seed money.

A Great Time-Management Tip

My favorite piece of advice in this book is the concept of “bunching.” Bunching is a smarter way to multitask. The concept of bunching is different because it divides activities into two groups: head activities and body activities. The idea is to do one while you are doing the other whenever possible. One example is listening to something educational while driving. When doing this, it gives you more time to spend with your loved ones, and isn’t that what personal development and time management are all about?

Are You a Cre8or?

The most important elements of building a personal income through business is to make money doing what you love. Creating something of value or doing something you have always wanted to do can only be done in your other eight hours. The book has an inventory of some of the key moments in life, and the question of whether these occurred at work, school, or in the other eight hours. I think that most of us will admit that it is the other eight hours. If you have always wanted to learn a foreign language, this is how you do it. If you have wanted to learn a new skill, this is how. If you wanted to write a book, this is how. Robert Pagiarini has a term for people like this: Cre8ors. So, are you a Cre8or?

I am not the most naturally organized person. What systems of organization that I do have often seem discernible only to me. However, one of my biggest frustrations in life is wanting to do something, only to realize that I have allowed life to get in the way of my goals. Knowing that, I decided to check out Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern to find out more about time management.

Finally, Recommendations for Me!

One of the big things that I noticed in other attempts at time management was just how much the schedule seemed to be recommended based on someone else: someone who is already neat and has their time management skills together. If that is your fear, I can assure you that that is not the case. Julie Morgenstern gives plenty of suggestions that can be done by anybody.

Perhaps first and foremost is figuring out what works and what doesn’t. As someone who has finished many a paper at just about the last minute possible, but still almost always found a way to meet the deadline, I know that this is something for me where external pressure seems to work very well. I can hammer out a 10-20 page paper in one day, but ask me to do it in five days at a rate of 2-4 pages a day, and I will struggle. Knowing that, in a year or so, I must begin my dissertation process, and that I am allowed up to eight years to finish it, I know that I cannot just sit idly by and wait until the last minute to finish a 200-300 page work that must be regularly reviewed by advisors. So, I am going to look at the fall semester as my chance to practice pacing myself.

Time Maps: An Eye-Opening Experience

One of my biggest surprises in the time mapping process was just how many open spaces there are where I don’t really accomplish all that much. However, the concept of a Time Map is to get good enough at figuring out those basic goals for your time that you can just plug in events relevant to each type of event. There is room for personal things, professional, family, spiritual… you name it. My piece of advice: figure out what you do best and when you do it best, and then work around that.

Putting It All Together

The process does not end with the time map. After the two-week process of developing one’s own time map and refining it, then comes the ways to make the most out of time. This is something that will make it possible to make one’s time much more effective, as the important things are kept, and the distractions are gradually scrapped as one learns another way to set priorities.

Conclusion

This is definitely the time management book for the rest of us. Rather than trying to fit someone else’s idea of what constitutes a good use of time, why not use Julie Morgenstern’s book to learn how to develop a much more personalized approach? Those who are looking for books on time management obviously want to improve on it, and I would be hard pressed to find a better place to start than this book.