Time is Like Money

Coaching baseball, running a business, earning a Master’s degree, serving in ministry, and being a great husband and father all at the same time can seem like a huge juggling challenge to the causal observer. When my wife asked me to drive her on an errand, while I was trying to complete a reading assignment for school, it was not an interruption, but rather an opportunity to shift my focus from the objective of earning a Master’s degree to the objective of being a good husband. That’s an important distinction and a good lesson in perspective.

Second, driving Stephanie to the mall and getting my school work done were not opposing time demands. They could be easily integrated if I just thought about my time in terms of minutes rather than blocks of hours. We’ve all heard the adage, time is money. True in one context, but time is also like money, in that it is currency, and you are continually spending it, moment by moment. People who get a lot done and seem to “have it all” live an integrated life. They don’t like to waste time, but they see time in minutes. Paying a bit more attention to how those minutes get spent will make you aware of how many of them are wasted. No one can really manage his time. He can only spend it. So, it must be spent well.

A Few Pointers

I read about 50 books a year. But, half of them are audiobooks. I listen in the car traveling to and from the office, on the airplane during flights, while walking the dogs, and so on. Rather than waste all that driving, flying, and walking time on mindless mental wandering and useless cell phone chit-chat, I put it to better use. You can buy audiobooks on CD, or you can download them to your smart phone or tablet and take them everywhere you go. Even some of my school books are available in audio format. It’s the future of publishing.

Here’s another pointer. Use your televisions; don’t let them use you. Turn off the televisions, all of them. Only turn them on for a specific program or movie. Some folks turn the TV on as soon as they come home and it stays on all night until bedtime, then they turn on the TV in the bedroom and watch more worthless “entertainment” until they doze off to sleep. TV, TV, TV. It will suck the life out of your otherwise “free time.” That said, I had a television installed in my bathroom.  I spend a good thirty minutes getting ready every morning. The TV is set for my favorite news channel, and I get prepared for my day both physically and mentally by catching up on the top stories while shaving, showering and getting dressed.

One more pointer. I travel extensively for education, ministry, and business. This could steal a lot of precious time away from my family. But, I bring them along. My son is taking an African mission trip with me this year. My wife routinely comes with me on business travel. A few summers ago, I included my daughter on an archaeological dig in Israel for a course I was taking at seminary. Integrate everywhere. I integrate driving and reading, shaving and news consumption, travel and family time, and so on. Now, how can you start integrating? To get the most out of your time, be flexible and opportunistic, pay attention to where it is going, and start integrating whenever you can.