Einstein once described the relative nature of time by saying, "If a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute, but if he sits on a hot stove for a minute, it seems like an hour."
A similar notion favored by the instructors at Military Freefall parachute school was, "If you have a problem in the air, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out." In that case, the “rest of your life” was relative.
I have been thinking about how we measure time during my constant quest to develop the perfect (or at least pretty good) daily planner.
In the past, a 30-minute block has been my default unit of measure. Most daily planners are based on 30-minute blocks, and so I would schedule a call at 9:30, a meeting at 10:00, and conversation 10:30.
The problem is when the call takes 15 minutes, and I have 15 minutes to wait until my meeting. I often waste that time.
Then when my meeting begins, although it may only take 20 minutes to cover the necessary ground, I'm liable to continue talking and fill the time because it is allocated.
In this case it is helpful to use the smallest unit of measure possible, and to have a running list of things to do ready to fill up the available time between events.
The goal is not to get everything done every day, but to always get the most important things done every day and to fill otherwise wasted minutes with tasks to allow us to recoup meaningful chunks of time for things we want to do.
So, in this case, we need to think small.
On the other hand, when it comes to achieving long-range goals, we need to recognize that good things take time.
We won’t get in shape in a month or learn a language in two. We won’t build a business or develop a meaningful relationship in six months.
These things take time, but by being miserly with our minutes we can make the months work for us.
And of course, if you wait til the last minute, it only takes a minute.
