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72 Blocks of Time

By January 15, 2016February 14th, 2019Articles, Leadership

“If you love life don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.” Bruce Lee

I referred to our ‘busy economy’ in my last blog. This is what I believe we exist in. Ask anyone how he or she are and they will respond ‘busy’. And rightfully so, business is busy. Or it should be. As I’ve mentioned before, it really depends what you’re busy doing and if you are doing the things that are going to get you closer to your vision, goals and dreams or if you are simply busy wasting time. Only you know that.

I’m not going to go on about this anymore here. However, I read a book over the Christmas break that referred to how we use time and it really resonated with me and I thought I’d share.

We all have the same amount of time available to us. Each day we have exactly 1,440 minutes. That sounds a lot doesn’t it? So if we take out sleep of say 7 hours (bear with me here, I’m focusing on the ideal situation!) we still have 1,020 minutes of awake hours at our disposal.

The idea was, that we have 72 blocks of 20 minutes in total available to us. For the mathematicians out there you will have done the quick multiplications to realise this equates to the 1,440 minutes. So taking out the 21 sleep blocks that leaves 51 blocks of 20 minutes for us to use as we choose.

Now I don’t know about you but I love this. That’s a lot of blocks to play with! That is blocks of time for us to use for strategy, relationship building, clients, team building, communication, marketing, finances, reflection, exercise, family; you name it. You can name or colour your blocks as you choose. These are blocks of opportunity!

I share this because we are so often overwhelmed by how little time we have; which is a perception I might add. We keep telling ourselves that we don’t have the time when in fact we do. Yes there will be times when your 51 blocks of time are fully utilised and there will be other times when you’ll need to change how you are using your blocks of time. The point is that you do have it. Start focusing on what time you do have and use it wisely. Ensure you’re using your blocks of time effectively. Don’t waste them on time wasting activities and this includes spending your time with those who don’t value your time or appreciate it.

The more you value your time, the more others will value it too.

Time is the most valuable resource you have. Spend those 1,440 hours as if it were your last. Because the fact is, we don’t get time back.