The 24 inch Gauge-Time Management that fits your life
The 24 inch Gauge teaches us to use 8 hours for Service of
God and distressed worthy brothers, 8 for our work, and 8 for refreshment and
sleep. This is a generic rule, but we
can plan our lives within these guidelines.
It is the first working tool we teach.
Without good time planning we can find ourselves wasting the other
tools.
All of us have 24 hours in a day. Rich or Poor, Man, Woman, Child, Animal, we
all live under the same solar cycles. We
all get a different number of 24 hour days depending on God’s divine providence
however. We can also buy more hours in
a day. Companies and other people pay
for peoples hours all the time. They do
this because your time is needed to get work done and they intend to make more
from your time than they are paying you.
If you pay someone to mow your grass, that is freeing up
your time or inability to do it yourself and they are selling that time to
you.
There is hundreds of quotes on use of time on the internet,
some are below:
Until you value
yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not
do anything with it. -M.
Scott Peck
I must govern the clock, not be governed by
it. -Golda Meir-
Your
greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your
time. -Brian Tracy
One
thing you can’t recycle is wasted time. Anonymous
All
that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that.
Baltasar Gracian
York right has a ceremony specifically to help
you reflect on your life and that we all have limited time.
When I was a Knights of Columbus member the
motto is Tempus Fugate, Memento Mori.
Time Flies, Remember Death.
I used a visual aid when I was recruiting
parents to join cub scouts with their children.
I had a rope that had 76 marks on it stretched out. Each mark was one year. Then I point out the timeline they have to
influence their child from about age 8 to 16.
After that their friends and activities seem to take over. It is a small amount of time.
One of the best tools I discovered was defining
you time by what you are. Write down all
the things that make you what you are.
Here are starters:
Man Child
of God Husband Father Brother
Grandfather Citizen Pet Owner Worker Mason
Neighbor Hobbyist(Golf,
Fishing, Shooting, Gardening, Cars, Artist, etc)
Homeowner Sports
Enthusiast Friend Traveler Son
Other
Now man includes taking care of your body with
fitness, rest, sleep, health.
Child of God is your religion and your reading
and prayer life.
Citizen is staying abreast of political and
social activities to make sure you can vote and maybe become and activist.
But look through all the categories and add
anything else that takes up your time.
Now the hard part. Number each one of these as a priority in
your life. Is it really God, Family,
Country? Put the most important thing to
you as number 1, and so on.
Once you have done that, compare it to how much
time you spend on the priority items, versus time wasted or on lower
items. That may tell you that you are
using your time incorrectly and may need to adjust. If husband is a top item, when was the last
time you did something special for your wife?
I like to have a card with each item on it at the top in order of
priority, then put down tasks I need to do for each of them.
Did you put friend as a priority? What phone calls or contacts can you make
with your friends to keep in touch?
Maybe, when you look at the list, maybe that priority is not what you
thought it was.
I have a timekeeping card system call ScanCards
at https://mckinleyleather.com/products/scancard-starter-kit
I just bought one for my grandson who is
starting high school, to help him track his homework and school activities.
I will tell this story from when I was Master
at my lodge in 1985, prior to a lot of internet.
I asked about 10 of the older Masons what was
one regret they had looking back they would change. Many said the same thing, some with
tears. They wished they had spent more
time with their children. If you google
it, it is still the top 10 along with saving earlier for retirement.
Work at what is important to you and you will
have no regrets when you become those older masons.
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