To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time

To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time. – Leonard Bernstein

A couple of those rockets could use a little more direction!

What does that mean?
The quote tells us that great things happen when you have a plan and almost enough time. In other words, a deadline. One that is close enough to put some pressure on you to have to really focus and work hard and efficiently to get it completed.

We won’t forget about the plan, because without a plan, what do you have? A deadline, a lot of frenetic energy, and stuff getting done haphazardly. That’s not going to make for great things, as the quote suggests, is it? So we need a plan and time pressure to make great things happen.

Why is time important?  
For some reason, time pressure brings out the best in us. Unless it brings out the worst in us. I would imagine that you’ve seen (in the movies or on TV, if not in real life) someone have a screaming meltdown at the last moment.

On the other hand, you’ve probably seen, but may not have noticed, the calm and collected person behind the scenes at a different place pulling it all together in the final moments.

Time makes us all equal. We all get the same number of hours in a day. No one gets 25 hours, no one gets 61 seconds. Everyone is given the same resources. The difference is how you use the time. What do you use your time to do? How do you spend it (or do you invest it, or do you waste it)?

Where can I apply this in my life?
In science terms, you have two things: a plan (direction) and not quite enough time (pressure or thrust as the pressure is released). Without thrust, you have a pretty rocket pointing in a very specific direction, but no motion. Without a plan, you have a rocket going in every which way, but in no particular direction.

I have a bunch of open-ended plans, ones with no deadlines. Guess what? They’re sitting on the back burner. Nothing is getting done. No big hurry. No big deal. I’ll get to that tomorrow, or the day after. If I need to, that is. And provided nothing important comes up in the mean time.

What I have is a fleet of very pretty, intricately designed, carefully aimed, precisely aligned rockets that are sitting there, inert. Going nowhere. Does that sound familiar? I hope not. So let’s focus on time management, so you can try to make the most of what you have.

There are plenty of resources in your local library, at your favorite book store, on blogs, and on the internet, so I won’t dwell on the how-to aspect. What I want to do is to have you examine your life (what a novel concept), and how you use your time.

Grab some paper and write down what you did yesterday. Not the details of your accomplishments, but how you used your time. When did you get up? How long did it take to get ready in the morning? Did you eat breakfast, watch TV, or check your e-mail in that time?

Just run through your day, with blocks of time and write down what you did in each of those time blocks. Do the same for the prior few days. Plan on doing this each day for a week or two. The idea is to get a fairly stable source of data. Each day will be unique, so by getting a larger sample, you get more data that is more useful.

Starting with the sample day(s) you already have, are you seeing places where you could trim some time-wasters? Does it really take two hours to get ready in the morning? Depends on if you’re watching cartoons for an hour of that time, or doing a one-hour workout, right?

Be kind to yourself, and make sure you have a little ‘down-time’ in there. It’s important to relax a little. You can have a few guilty pleasures, but if you’re spending ten or more hours a week, that might be a little much. Can you get by on six hours, and free up four hours a week for something else?

Only you can answer these questions, as they are judgement calls. But we all get the same number of hours to play with. If I’m going to ever get back to working on my cars, I need to free up some time. I think this weekend, I’ll spend less time watching football and more time wrenching. It’s really about self discipline, isn’t it?

How about you? How will you use your time this weekend? Keep track of what you’re spending your time on, and look for ways to keep doing the important things, and spend less time on the other stuff. Now you have some time to invest in that project you’ve been thinking about (or has been sitting in a corner, waiting patiently for you).

From: Twitter, Sid Meier’s Civilization V (popup quote for completing Big Ben wonder)
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/l/leonardber140536.html
Photo by jurvetson