No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any.

— Thomas Jefferson

RESILIENCE

WHAT THIS MEANS

Complaints about a shortage of time are usually complaints about leakage. The hours are mostly there, and they go out in small unrecorded amounts: the twenty minutes before starting anything, the second look at the phone, the evening that dissolved without a decision. None of it feels like spending, which is why the accounting never happens.

Keep an honest record for two days, written down as it happens rather than remembered afterwards. Then take the largest leak and put one obstacle in front of it. Recovering an hour a day this way is ordinary, and it is more time than most people think they are missing.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Where does an hour of your day disappear without trace?

MORE IN DISCIPLINE, WORK & STANDARDS

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