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Posts from the ‘Time Tools’ Category

Jan 2

Concentration Cycles: A President’s Example

“Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.”

—No. 110 from Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation

The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior are ascribed to George Washington, but not because he originated the list, which was already over 130 years old when his tutor assigned it to him as a penmanship assignment. Presumably, during those intervening 130 years, he was not the only school boy set to copying it by his tutor; surely others had longhanded the little statements as well.

What he did do was keep the list handy, making it part of his real life, rather than treating it like a school assignment. He did not pack it away in a bundle of forgotten school papers or throw it out once he received his mark. He reviewed it regularly, and made it part of his continued improvement as an adult. Read more

Jan 1

Calendar Work

Are you sitting with a blank notebook and pen eager to start something in this new year? Are you holding the new calendar and wondering what to record? Are you intrigued with the idea of meeting with yourself weekly but haven’t a clue what to do once you get there?  Read more

Dec 20

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Daily Dose 61: 5 O’Clock Quitting Time

Mom was a simple, straight forward stay-at-home mom, at the time when every mother stayed home. Our one car went to work with our dad. The milk man, the bread man, and the insurance man all routinely came to our home, the side door. The first two left FOOD, which greatly interested us as children; the third came to collect money, which held no interest for us whatsoever.

Our first teenage babysitter came one night when I was probably in fourth or fifth grade. Other than that, Grandma Wilson appeared for a week or so whenever a new baby was born, or mom was home with us. My dad even did the grocery shopping every other Friday night (on payday, it turns out) after coming home for dinner and picking up one of the children for their turn on the shopping adventure.  Read more

Dec 18

Daily Dose 59: 80/20 Principle 2

If the good news about the 80/20 principle is we can expect major results for reasonable effort, what other news do we need to hear? As with most topics, time spent considering the balance points is usually time well spent.

The other side of the 80/20 principle is if we can accomplish 80 percent of result with 20 percent of input, then doubling or tripling input will not, indeed cannot double or triple result. We already know about this, the law of diminishing returns. Read more

Dec 17

Daily Dose 58: 80/20 Principle

Out in the realm of abstract math—not to be mistaken with arithmetic that simply connects or separates concrete numbers by straightforward operations like adding and subtracting—the mysterious “they” have repeatedly demonstrated in a variety of applications an interesting mathematical aspect to life. Roughly 80 percent of outcome almost always comes from something close to 20 percent of input. Read more

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