Welcome to "Tuesday Mornings," a calorie-free place for Christians everywhere to be inspired and encouraged.

 

I have met only a few people in life that I would describe as "Type A" personalities. But not one of them would ever claim to be so blessed. In fact, the ones I have met think that they are normal and everyone else is strange. Typically (and in this category nothing is typical), "Type A" folk are highly competitive, impatient, assertive, compulsive in their work, and excessively time-conscious. My friends will say that I don't have any of these traits. (Pause here for a standing ovation for me and all other "type-something-other-than-A-behavior-pattern" people).

 

"Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" also says, "Type A individuals are often highly achieving workaholics who multi-task, drive themselves with deadlines, and are unhappy about the smallest of delays." I don't fit any of those descriptions either. I'm originally from California, where natives are said to be laid-back, easy to get along with, optimistic, hopeful, a little left-of-center on most things, and not excessively time-conscious. I do resemble a few of these descriptions.

 

I am not ignorant about time. I just don't care to be obsessed about it. But I need to be—at least more than I am now. So, I decided to write on the subject of "Making the Minutes Count." That is the title of this week's essay. Continue reading below whenever you are ready to learn how to manage your time more effectively. In fact, prepare yourself now to receive some sensitive training on "adding life to your years." It is straight ahead.

 

Tom Barnard

A Senior-something Encourager

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Making the Minutes Count

Tom Barnard

 

uestion: In your work or in your play (or whatever you do), are you counting the minutes, or are you making the minutes count? There is a difference. If you are “counting the minutes,” you are probably bored with what you are doing. If you are “making the minutes count,” employers are looking for you! You will never be without a job.

 

M. Lincoln Schuster (1897-1970) was one of the founders of Simon and Schuster, Inc., generally known as a global leader in the field of general-interest publishing. Today, Simon & Schuster, Inc. is one of the largest English-language publishers in the world—a list that includes Random House, Penguin, Harper Collins, and a few others. In 1924, Max Schuster and Dick Simon, two young entrepreneurs, created the first crossword puzzle book ever printed, and from there a publishing dynasty was born.

 

In a short essay (entitled “Make the Minutes Count”) that appeared in A New Treasury of Words to Live By (edited by William Nichols and published by Simon and Schuster—latest copyright date 1959), Schuster wrote in glowing terms about an older friend named Bernard Berenson, whom Schuster called “the most creative man I know.” Berenson was over ninety years of age when Schuster wrote about him.

 

Schuster said, “When I saw ‘B.B.’ last he was still unquenchably young in heart, a supreme master of the greatest art of all—the art of living. This is the art of getting sixty minutes from the hour, twenty-four hours from the day. Never willing merely to add years to his life, he always insists on adding life to his years. He does it by being everlastingly interested in the world around him.”

 

Schuster went on to say about his friend, “Each minute of his time is dedicated, disciplined, undistracted. In his tenth decade his agenda of unfinished business is more inspiring than ever.” At the time he wrote those words, Berenson was working on five books, completing a comprehensive catalog of the Renaissance, “and still enjoying the master fulfillment of getting things done.”

 

Another quote in Schuster’s essay was by Paul Gandola, who said, “Every minute starts an hour.” Not exactly a profound quote. But Paul was six years old when he looked at his father’s watch—puzzling over the mystery of what makes a watch’s hands move—and said the words that are forever recorded in a publisher’s ink. The young boy’s words are a reminder of the adventure that accompanies every day we live. Every minute starts an hour. Every hour starts a day. Every day starts a week. And life goes on.

 

The question remains: Are you counting the minutes or making the minutes count? How you answer that question may determine your destiny. Don’t be satisfied to merely “add years to your life;” insist instead on “adding life to your years.” The choice is yours.

 

Here are some “time tips” to make your minutes count, suggested by the Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College:

• Plan your day each morning and set priorities for yourself.
• Do first things first and concentrate on doing one thing at a time.
• Push yourself and be persistent, especially when you know you are doing well.
• Be sure to set deadlines for yourself whenever possible.
• Evaluate your progress at the end of the day.

 Commenting on Ephesians 5:16, John Wesley said that believers should “redeem” their time “for the best purposes—buying up every fleeting moment out of the hands of sin and Satan, out of the hands of sloth, ease, pleasure, worldly business—the more diligently, because the present ‘are evil days.’”