|
Chapter 9 |
||
|
Chapter 10 |
||
|
|
The Curious Tale
of
Surfing Sam and
Drowning James
|
1
DEFINING TIME
-what is time and why is it so precious
2
THE SAD CASE OF DROWNING JAMES
-prime example of a time waster
3
SURFING SAM'S SUCCESS STORY
-how you can use your time
4
TIME MASTER NOT TIME SLAVE
-introducing the diary system
5
DREAMING
-what do you want to do with your life?
6
ACCOMPLISHING YOUR DREAMS
-using the diary to bridge your dreams
7
STUDY MASTER
7.1 - BREAK MANAGEMENT
7.2 - SPEED READING
7.3 - MIND MAPS
8
BUSH BALANCE
-pulling it all together
9
YOU ARE THE OASIS IN your own desert
1
- DEFINING TIME
When
ever anyone asks me the time I never need to look at my watch. I just
look them in the eyes and whisper 'The time is now'! Think about it: the
future does not exist and the past is gone. Now is the only time that it
ever is.
Our
lives are just as short. Blink twice! If the whole of the earth's
existence was reduced to a year, your life-span would be the time
between those blinks. As far as the world is concerned, your life is
momentarily inconsequential. Oh the whole of time maybe infinite, but
your own lifetime is absolutely finite. Only
a few people realize just how precious time is, and I call them TIME
MASTERS. They know that what they get out if your life is the sum total
of what they do every day and so they make the most out of every single
moment. In doing so, they fulfill their dreams.
This
book is a training manual to show you just how easy it is to become a
TIME MASTER. You have passed the first and most important lesson already
if you have realized the value of your time. All you have to do is rid
your life from the single biggest time waster. ....
and do you know what that is? No, its not coffee breaks, crosswords or
television; the biggest time waster in your life is you! 2
- THE SAD CASE OF DROWNING JAMES
Allow
me to introduce our first character - Drowning James. He starts his day
at 9.55 as he leaps out of bed, scrambling through piles of books and
clothes in his rush to make his 10am lecture. He misses it as usual, and
wheezes into the cafeteria for a coffee and a chat with the other
late-arrivals. This goes on long after the lecture has finished and
James spends the next half-hour trying to get a photocopy of the notes
he missed. (He never actually reads any of these copied notes but feels
more on top of the work with them piled in his room.)
When
he leaves his friends at 2.15 it is nearly time to go to his 3pm lecture
and so he hangs around until the doors open, goes in, sits down at the
back and .... falls asleep until the lecture is over! James
can't go to the library because he has forgotten his books, and decides
to go home and to do some 'serious study', but instead joins his
flat-mates watching that interesting educational documentary - Postman
Pat. They are so comfortable that they end up watching all the
documentaries for the under-fives, only switching it all off when the
news comes on! Now
James knows he can't concentrate on an empty stomach and the fact that
he has no food in the fridge is an excellent excuse for a smoked-sausage
supper, which just has to be accompanied by a pint of heavy.
It
is only as the clock strikes midnight that James realizes that the day
has just slipped past him. We leave him as he stumbles home, tired as a
newt and mumbling something about all the study that he is going to do
tomorrow to make up for today, which has been a complete and utter waste
of time. James
starts the next day at 11am with a hangover, realizing that he has
missed the lecture again. THE
JAMES IN YOU 3
- SURFING SAM'S SUCCESS STORY
Sam
doesn't find it easy getting up at 7.30am but he always drinks a pint of
water the night before which certainly makes sure he gets out of bed! He goes out
to buy the paper which kick starts his mind in action for his 9am
lecture.
After
lunch he has a Squash Team meeting and a 2 o'clock tutorial. He doesn't
go to his 3pm lecture because the lecturer just reads the notes and Sam
knows that he can do the same in half the time. Instead, he walks home, satisfied with
the work done and ready to enjoy his afternoon. He
does not relax in front
of the box, but jogs for an hour to get fit for his next squash match.
Sam knows that this is more of a refreshment for his mind by exercising his body.
After his shower . It
has been nearly 5 hours since he last did any study, and knowing that he
still has an hour to do, sits down in the sofa with a coffee and reads a
text book, only rewarding himself by playing his guitar. BALANCED
SAM - Believe me, he really hates studying, but he has made a deal with
himself to do at least three hours every day, and because he breaks up
those three hours he never feels tired. Others cram all their work into
the morning, but Sam spreads it over the whole day and so has a more
balanced and less stressful routine. Sam
makes it easy to spread his study evenly by doing all the hard work in
the morning, leaving the easy work like reading for the evening. With a
coffee and a comfortable chair, it doesn't feel like work at all. He
also keeps his desk tidy and books organized making it that extra bit
easier to sit down and get into it.
This
theory of spreading things over the whole period extends itself to his
year. Sam knows just how inefficient it is to cram before an exam. He
would rather work at a steady rate throughout the year, knowing that he
actually does less work than the person who does nothing for the first
two terms and then has to go crazy for the last few months. Having
finished his last hour of study, and eaten supper from a well stocked
cupboard, the evening is free-time. Sam might watch a specific TV
program, meet a friend for a drink, read a book, go the cinema and
generally winds down after a well balanced and well used day. He
wakes up the next morning at 8am, fresh and ready to start the day's
activities. 4
- TIME MASTER OR TIME SLAVE?
OK, so the differences are far-fetched but you can see how easy it is to drown. I hope that you can also see just how simple it is to pull yourself up out of the water by organizing your time. Only then can you stop being a Time Slave and start to become a Time Master. James is a Puppet with no control over his strings and Sam is a Conductor, totally in charge of his destiny. Which would you rather be? The funny thing is that James and Sam
are in fact the same person. His whole name is James Samuel Butler and
in his first year he was so unorganized that he he had to re-sit his exams,
He decided to change his
chaotic life and first-year James became second-year Sam. The turning point occurred at the end
of his first year when James saw that he was drowning in his daily
confusion and had no concept of the future. All he did was to look up
and begin to dream. 'What do I want to do with my life?' he
asked himself. 'Well, I really want to make the squash
team and I've always wanted to play guitar, but I'll never find the time
to practice and I would have to organize my studies first. I'll never be
able to do it all!' James was about to give up when he realized
that there was another way to cross any river. He didn't have to jump it
in a single leap, he could cross it gradually using stepping stones. Similarly, he could only expect to
accomplish his dreams over a longer period of time. He could not expect
to play the guitar tomorrow, but by splitting the goal into smaller
tasks, he might be able to play one day. If he did the same with all of
his other dreams, then maybe he could also get into the squash team and
even pass his exams!
For example, if he was ever going to
pass his exams he would need to start reading his notes and buy a folder
to organize them. STUDY - read notes
- buy folder To get into the squash team, he would
have to attend the meetings and get fit for the matches. SPORT - attend meeting
- jog And if he was ever going to play the
guitar he would firstly need to buy some new strings and start
practising. MUSIC - buy strings
- practice There
are only three steps to becoming a Time Master and James had already
taken two of them. STEP 1 : RIVERS - James had written
down his River-dreams. STEP 2 : STONES - He had split his
long-term goals into manageable stepping stones. Now all he had to do
was start to cross them. STEP 3: STEP BY STEP - James opened his
diary (for the first time ever!) and placed it next to his RIVERS sheet.
He could now see the list of 'things to do' on the right, and the time
available to do them on the left. All he needed to do was to slot the
activities into the free-time available on the daily page.
James
sat back, pleased with what he had done, and eager to start putting it
all into practice. He realised that if he wanted to make
the 10am lecture the next morning, he would have to get up at 9am and so
he got to bed early, ready to start his new schedule and his new life.
He awoke at 8am, fresh and ready for the new day
.... and well, you know the rest! The complete change took a few months.
James got into the 3rds squash team within a week and as he became
fitter, he eventually made the 2nd's. He perfected the guitar and
started to practise with a jazz band, and even got to grips with his
study, shocking the world by scoring a merit at the end of term exams. The greatest change was in the realisation that by taking seemingly impossible tasks and breaking them up into smaller tasks, he could cross his rivers not by huge leaps but with stepping stones. He soon got into the habit of doing the same with his other dreams and started playing the saxophone in the band as well as guitar. After his success in the squash team, he started judo, tennis, and various other sports. 5
- DREAMING
What other activities could James have
done? If you were telling this story, what other river-dreams would you
have chosen? What are the activities that you yourself would like to do?
What are your dreams?
Now you have to ask yourself why you
aren't doing these things today? If these things mean so much to you,
then you must start doing them NOW!! MY RIVERS I set myself the task to become a
journalist over the Easter holidays. Splitting my River Goal
'Journalism', I broke it into the Stepping Stones of reading magazines,
learning to spell and revising my grammar. At the time it seemed impossible, but
within one month I was published in 'The Accountancy Magazine'. I always wanted to play in a ceilidh
band and so I split that into smaller steps of learning an instrument,
learning the tunes, getting into a band and finally starting up my own.
We are called 'Ceilidh Minogue and the Flopsy Bunnies' and are available
for bookings. Another of my crazy dreams was to play
the bagpipes. You may laugh, but after two noisy years I can play, and
can charge myself out at £40 for three tunes, which is like earning £2million
a year! Dream big and don't be put off with the
size of your dreams because if you just take a step at a time, then no
river is too wide and you can do anything that you want to do! All you have to do is to take a piece
of paper and write down these dreams at the top of the page, like I did
many years ago.
|
