Dec 2
Accrued benefits, compounded interest, and passive income. . .who cannot be impressed with how much money a ten-year-old might have at retirement if they would only save a thousand dollars a year? The drawback is the people seeing such charts are usually forty-somethings who still have not saved a thousand dollars a year and are often heard saying, “If I had only known this twenty years ago…” Read more
For those more familiar with the kitchen than the tool shop, one of the time tools over there in the corner looks strangely familiar . . .could that really be a carrot hanging above the workbench?
An office worker recognizes it as a record of rolled over unused vacation days and personal time off hours, common accrued benefits of the business world.
The entrepreneur is sure the tool looks a bit like the passive income generated by the interest, rental income, and astute investments he is used to seeing.
Think of the tool as accumulating future benefits. A small benefit, of little value at the present time, but increasing consistently over the years until it reflects a substantial amount. Read more
Here is where to begin reading Daily Dose 31-40 in order.
When we attend an event, we make any necessary preparations (mark the calendar, change clothes, gas the car, leave in time) to get where we need to be to participate. When we attend to our children, we focus on what they need and do it without distraction. Soldiers called to attention, put themselves in an alert and ready position to hear actively and to respond immediately to whatever they are ordered to do. Students attend class, which should mean complete preparation out-of-class of anything needed to participate competently in class, rather than (too often) being marked physically present in class, even though the mind, engagement, and focus are elsewhere and course work is incomplete or undone. Read more
When we hire the appliance repair man or the car mechanic, the doctor or the consultant, what are we paying for? Sometimes we are paying for their specialized tools and their access to replacement parts. Sometimes we are paying for the concentrated practice that has made them an expert. Always we are paying for their ability to quickly assess and diagnose what needs attention. In a word, we are hiring expertise, and at a hundred dollars an hour, the operative word is quickly. In our homes, and personal lives, we are (or ought to be) the experts who must quickly assess whether automation or attention is needed. Read more
Row upon row of tools, gizmos, widgets, increment hammers, right angle drills, and magnetic sweepers: hardware and home building stores are some of my favorite places to wander. Nothing makes the little bottom drawer toolbox with its 8 oz. hammer, one Phillips head and one flat-tip screwdrivers, a 6 ft. tape measure and a 2 inch mini-level seem inadequate than store displays aisles long and ceiling high of familiar tools tweaked and adjusted for highly specific applications.
Why once even I became a specialty tool! I have forgotten the actual problem afflicting our little car, but it required removing a bolt from the firewall, a bolt brilliantly positioned directly behind the engine. No doubt factory-owned service centers have precisely designed tools for such situations, but in our driveway, my tiny ten-year-old-sized hand on an adult body became our “specialty tool,” slipping into the slender opening and successfully removing the bolt. Don’t ask about the putting it back part of the equation.
The point, of course, is not that the Lord designed my tiny hands to remove one bolt a significant number of years ago solely to be a husband-helper-in-his-time-of-need, but that specialized tools do exist, because special jobs exist that cannot (readily) be done with every day average tools.
It only makes sense then, that if we have a time job, we need to collect the time tools designed to solve time problems. If you only have the bottom drawer version of a time tool kit—you know, the one with only a calendar and a clock–then come stroll through the workshop where the specialty time tools are hanging, waiting to be used on the various priority projects and time problems life presents to a family.
Unlike the tools in the local hardware or mega-building supply store, the time tools don’t cost money. They cost some amount of time and effort but like a good circular saw, their expense should be considered an investment to gain time or better functionality in the future. Most are simple to learn how to use, and none of them will cut off your hand—well, maybe some laziness or inattention will get shaved off, but then we’d all be better without them, now, wouldn’t we?
Some time tools are versatile, powerful machines capable of multiple applications. Others are more specialized but may be exactly the “small hand” needed for a particular task. They help us protect our priorities and make us better at balancing our long-view life with our short-view tasks. Best of all, they are easy to share with a neighbor. Imagine tools you can literally give away, and still have in your own workshop when you need them. No other tool company has ever figured out how to do that! Browsing the time tools starts here.
Priority Stewardship 