Sunday, July 08, 2007

No Time for Success

In the other room there's a Nintendo Wii working. Two young boys play tennis together. In my mind there's a battle around the usefulness of video games to the end user. My main stance is that they are a waste of time.

Slice it any way you want, there are only so many seconds in a day. I'm not going to concentrate on doing everything quickly. People that know me, know that I enjoy the journey. But they also know that I question every activity I do.

Here are four levels of "time". See where you fit:

Level One is merely existing. You just go through the motions because your dream died long ago. This is the hardest level to break out of.

Level Two you are aware of time, but you are not conscious of it. This is the person who spends lots of time surfing the web, watching TV, playing Wii - wasting time that isn't going to help you.

Most everyone is at One or Two.

Level Three is again, aware of time, and you're efficient with it. You work towards being effective. You spend little time with things that don't get you toward your goals.

Level Four is where you are aware of opportunity cost. You spend time doing one activity, but you lose time to do the other activity - so you must choose between the greater of the two.

And it's not only activities, but people, too.

This is tough medicine, but you can't be Mother Theresa. Be careful who you spend time with.

Ok, tough lesson here. But this is what separates the AdSense winners from the losers. Look at every activity you do during the day and log it - keep a journal - and ask yourself - Is this worth my time?

You notice I am not rushing through any of this. That's because when I write about the actual work - most will want to the work without understanding what it takes to make it happen.