Lost Time

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="040f0f21egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="041203c0.jpg" border=0 width="32" height="60" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#66334C" FACE="Arial" ><B>The Magic of Reading</B></FONT><B>      |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Magic of Reading"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03ff2f02egerdp.jpg"> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14">    <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14">  <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14">    <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="14" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="14"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="34fadd00.gif" border=0 width="173" height="208" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="042f0f03.jpg"> <div> <I>Lost Time </I></div> <bR> <div> <B>This technique is not about how to save minutes every day; it is about how to save hours every day.  High functioning and happy people make the best use of their time.  Dr. Davis has made it a daily priority to watch how he uses his time.  Any significant savings of time he discovers pleases Davis as much as if he had found a cache of 100 dollar bills. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Lost Time</B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#006600" FACE="Arial Black" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  </div> <div> <IMG SRC="3adff370.jpg" border=0 width="255" height="311" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="16" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>Lost time is never found again</B></div> <div> <B>--</B><B>Benjamin Franklin</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>You have likely seen UFO features on TV regarding the phenomenon of missing time.  Certain people are convinced that alien abductions are responsible for gaps in their lives, time periods that have disappeared from their consciousness.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I believe that we are all victims of missing time, though not due to visitors from outer space.  Each of us have habits, routines, and life styles that are costing us one to five or more hours of time lost daily.  Since one hour of time per day adds up to nine forty hour work weeks over the course of a year, it pays to be aware of lost time villains in our lives.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>What to do</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1.  Spend some time reviewing how you spend your time.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How do you make your living?  Do you feel the activities you do on a daily basis at work are worthy of you?  Do you enjoy your work?  Are there ways you could spend your time more purposefully, more effectively?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>What do you do for recreation and fun?  Is your non-work time put to good use or do you find great gaps of lost time here?  What activities could turn lost time into found time?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>What about maintenance and sleep time?  For me, maintenance time is time spent not working and not recreating.  Brushing teeth, taking a bath, getting ready for work, and sleeping are maintenance tasks.  So is commuting.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Millions of people lose much time sleeping.  They don't sleep long enough or well enough, so they stumble through their day muddle-headed.  Or, they stay in the bed one or two hours longer than they need to, tossing and turning.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>2.  Identify one area of lost time you intend to reclaim.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>3.  Develop a plan to reclaim you lost time.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>4.  Do your plan.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>5.  Celebrate your success wildly!  If your plan results in saved time or improved time, then you have done something valuable and important.  After all, what really do we have that is more important and valuable to us than time?  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Ben Franklin said:  “Time is the stuff life is made of.”  When you reclaim one or more hours of lost time a day, it is the same as adding years to your life.  Other people have given up television, quit time-consuming bad habits, turned commuting time into productive time, altered their sleeping patterns.  You can too!</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>End</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Over the past couple of years, two areas I have focused my attention on most closely regarding lost time are sleep and travel time.  As far as I'm concerned, time spent in the sack </B><B>not sleeping</B><B> is waste time.  So, I aim to get to sleep quickly, sleep hard, and get up when I first wake up.  Most days I'm asleep by 10:20 and up between 5:00 and 5:30.  When I can I take a 10-15 minute nap after lunch.  This routine streamlines my sleep process and eliminates wasted time.  During the day, I am always alert and during sleep time, I SLEEP.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I spend </B><B>a lot</B><B> of time driving, traveling from Florida to Pennsylvania and out west to Tennessee and Alabama during my 20-Week Ben Franklin performance schedule.  Used to be, I would listen to XM radio most of the time.  Now, I either listen to books on CD (mostly non-fiction history) or practice my Spanish lessons.  If I am alert enough to drive, I figure I am alert enough to listen and learn.  Travel time is now learning time, not lost time.</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id127.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ben Franklin University"><U><B>Ben Franklin University</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>