Some of our friends — Mark Steele and Jeff Huston — recently released the final episode of their fantastic podcast (iTunes link). It’s not that the guys were running out of material, as evidenced by a three-hour discussion of the 10 best movies of 2010 a couple weeks ago. Rather, Mark and Jeff had other things, more important things, that required their time and attention. And so the podcast had to go.
As a fan of the Steelehouse Podcast, I was sad to hear that it was going away. But as someone who recently announced a similar decision, I completely understood. After all, there are only 24 hours in the day. It’s up to each of us to allocate those 24 hours wisely.
As Donald Miller wrote today: “As a creator, you don’t have time to waste. Time is your greatest commodity …”
There are times when you need to keep doing what you’re doing, stick with the plan, and see something through. And then there are other times when you need to take something off you plate so you can make room for something else. I wonder if this is what Ecclesiastes 3 is speaking to:
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Perhaps one of the keys to life is knowing when it’s time to tear down and when it’s time to build. Either way, it seems to prudent to constantly evaluate how we’re spending our time so that we can make the best of it.
I think I’m figuring out how to apply that when it comes to the projects I work on (or shut down). Now I have to figure out how to apply it to Twitter, RSS feeds, and all those other distractions that eat away at my greatest commodity.
If you have any time management tips, tricks, triumphs, or trials to share, I’d love to hear them.