Time Management & Math

My almost eight year daughter asked a strang question on the way home earlier this week. She wanted to know how many hours she had been alive. We went through the math and came up with approximately 70080 hours. She said, "Wow, that's a long time." I then explained that she needed to think about the number of hours spent sleeping, eating and doing other "daily stuff" if she wanted to better understand the time she had to play or do other things she wanted to do.

The conversation caused me to later think about how important it is for us to calculate how much "real time" we have to take care of work or other responsibilities. Saying you have 8, 10 or 12 hours to get work done isn't quite accurate. Factoring in meetings, interruptions and personal needs probably brings that number much lower, which makes it more critical than ever that you are fully focused on what is most critical to moving work forward.

The next time you are feeling a little smug about having plenty of time to get things done, factor in all the "daily stuff" that has to be accomplished, and you may just find yourself with a greater sense of urgency to focus on what is most important.