“You will never find time for anything.  If you want time you must make it.”

Charles Buxton

Good morning, friends!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are ready to get started on a brand new adventure.  I was out of town last week so we missed a week but today is a new day.  Let’s get to it!

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.  In the classic Broadway play “Rent” the memorable song “Seasons of Love” song reminds us that we all have five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes per year.  How do you use them?  How do you lose them?  How do you spend them?  How do you waste them?  It’s a mind boggling thought to reflect on the time we have and the ways we use it.  But if we don’t think about it we are sure to waste it.

One of the most effective time management tools I’ve ever encountered goes by many names but I call it the “Two Minute Drill”.  It could be the “One Minute Drill” or Three Minute or Ten Minute but for me it’s the Two Minute.  It works this way: when I’m overwhelmed with “to do’s” to the point where I find myself paralyzed I take a moment, brainstorm everything on my to do list, and make a clear, concise list.  Then I mark the things I could do individually in two minutes or less and begin doing them.  Write or answer an e-mail.  Make a phone call.  Create an outline.  Put something away.  Connect with someone.  In twenty minutes or less I’ve completed a long list of “to do’s” and I still have nine hundred and thirty minutes left in my waking day!

But what about the time for something new?  A new opportunity, or a new adventure, or a new need?  If all your time is (or seems) filled where do you “find” time for the new?  Most often we think we have to stop something old to start something new but time management gurus teach us that we waste more time than we realize.  In reality our need is to determine if the new is more valuable than the time we waste.  Is it for you?

·          What are you doing with your time?

·          What would you like to be doing in your time?

·          What is your first step to effective time use?

Time isn’t a commodity to be created; it’s a gift to be managed.  Whether it’s five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes in a year, one thousand four hundred and forty minutes in a day or simply sixty minutes in an hour you have time.  What are you going to do with it?  Make it great, that’s what I say!  Have a wonderful week.

Matthew 4:18-22