The biggest thing that gets in the way of our productivity is often ourselves. You can motivate yourself by thinking of the time you get each day as a “magic bank account” that refills each day, but if you don’t use what’s in it, you lose it.
Australian money picture from Shutterstock
The famous Alabama football coach Bear Bryant played a game each day that helped him not only maximise the usage of his time, but also helped him see the value in time. Writer Mike S. at the Thought-Management blog explains the rules Coach Bryant kept on a card with him at all times:
- Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life.
- And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.
- What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost.
- Yesterday is forever gone.
- Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time WITHOUT WARNING.
So, what will you do with your 86,400 seconds today?
Imagine you had a real bank account filled with $86,400 each day with the same rules applied. You’d want to spend every dollar you could before it was wiped away, right? You would get a fresh $86,400 the next day, but remember, your magic bank account could be taken away at any time, so using every dollar each day would be to your best advantage.
You actually get the same magic bank account every day, but with time instead of money. When you think of time as a limited resource it can change how you look at your time usage. Why spend the seconds you have tomorrow when you have some leftover still today? You don’t want to waste what you’re given every day, so start spending and get some stuff done.
Why Time Counts (from Coach Bear Bryant) [Thought-Management]
Comments
2 responses to “Maximise The Use Of Your Time With The ‘Magic Bank Account’ Approach”
Flawed Logic. There are not 86,400 usable seconds in a day.
There are only 57,600 usable seconds in a day, 8 hrs sleep is useful to make the most of our time awake. At best your going to get an hour or two more.
Unless you think of sleep as an investment!
Or a staple commodity that you can spend less on, but it won’t be great in the long term!