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The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.


The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

I seem to always have more that I want to do then time.  That just makes me feel like I am not as effective as I could be.  So I have been thinking about how I can work better to get more of what I want to get done finished.

My appetite for things to do is much greater than my ability to get to them.  When I do check things off I find that my vision for the output is compromised by the time I have to do it.  I feel good that I completed it but I always have a nagging thought that I should have done it better.  I marvel at people that seem to be able to work faster and deliver cooler results.

My son was reading the book Atomic Habits by James Clear around the end of 2019; just in time for 2020 resolutions.  So I picked up the book and I am working through using this to help me find more time to do more of the stuff I want to do and reduce the things that are not good uses of my time.  I have been following the techniques that James outlines and have had good results (so far).  I think it is helping me.  So far I have created a few new habits and I am working to break several bad ones. 

The trick to getting more things done is to work backwards from the things that are important and necessary.  Looking at Maslow's hierarchy of needs  I clearly need to have shelter food and utilities and comfort for my family.  That means I need money and quality time with them.  But I also need to be healthy so that I don’t compromise my ability to provide the basic needs over a longer period of time.  I don't want my health to be a burden upon them either.   At the top of the hierarchy of needs triangle is self actualization.  This is my personal desire to drive purpose and make an impact in the world and upon peoples lives.   It may not be some great and noble impact but I want to do some good and be altruistic to the extent that I can be.  I would like to be able to look back and point to something that I was part of that made the world a better place.

I think I can do better to align my time towards these goals if I also eliminate the non-value added or low payoff things that I do.  I have to quit doing some things and use that time to be able to do other things.    I just need to better budget life as a commodity; and spend it on things that are more valuable things that it can procure.

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