Time Management....

Obviously never learned much about time management growing up (the time before I graduated high school.) I mean, for the most of my life during that time period, I woke up, went to school, sports practice, and then came home and did homework. During High School, the only change in that was going to work some days after school, and on Saturdays, and summers. But even with all that routine, I always had as much time as I ever could have wanted to do the things I wanted to do. I honestly believe this was partly because my parents didn't have T.V. (cable), so I was able to spend TONS of time outside! I spent countless hours just exploring in the woods, riding my motorcycle, or hunting.

Obviously, not much time management is learned in college, or not by me anyway... I went to class (most days) did most of my homework, and worked 10-15 hours a week at Jimmy Johns. Despite all this, and this is why college life is so great, I rarely had to manage my time wisely in order to get what I wanted. I still had TONS of time to sleep, party, workout, play video games, play intramurals, and lay on the couch.

Fast forward to today... The ability to manage my time wisely to get what I want, and still help my family function properly is my greatest challenge. Now time management has much greater implications on my daily routines. If I manage my time wisely, I usually am able to work out with Cayle in the mornings before school. Go for a run or a bike ride, or x-country skiing, or something of the sort for an hour or so. If I don't manage my time wisely, the physical activity is the first thing that gets lost in favor of the daily chores. If I manage my time wisely, I easily have plenty of time to get things done, and still have time for myself.

Basically I think it comes down to motivation as I wrote about in an earlier post. If I really want something on any given day, I am more likely to get the chores done, if I don't really care, then things don't get done as quickly.

I am trying to be more like my wife in this aspect. As far as chores and professional responsibilities go, she is one of the best time managers I know. :-) She is a good role model for me!

Motivation

Motivation: is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic.

It's such a tricky beast! Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Most of the time during the bike racing season, I have it... big time.... sometimes though, I lose it... When the mountain bike racing season was over this year (Aug. 17th,) I decided I wanted to run a sub 6 mile at school with the kids. I was able to stay extremely motivated and knocked out that goal, then when dad asked if I wanted to bike race in Missouri in October, I was able to find the motivation again to train 3 weeks for that... But even keeping the motivation for that was tricky. After my major goal of the season, the mountain bike series, I always have some down time of laziness and low motivation. I had not really had that yet this year, since I started running hard about a week after the mountain bike series.

Now what brings this topic up? It is now November 4th and I haven't ran, or done anything physical other than riding my bike the 3 miles home from work since October 23rd... I haven't done anything except eat... lots!!! And struggling to find the motivation to get started with anything.

It's a good sign though, I have been getting antsy the last couple of days to get out and do something. Run or x-country ski or something. But that's at least the first step, feeling like I should get out and do something.

Until then, I am motivated to figure out a way to get my 7th grade basketball kids to start playing better. We have the talent, but lack good game time decision making skills.