Can the number 1440 change your life?
When I developed the Time Management Style Quiz my goal was to help people to understand their mastery of two dominant factors for productivity: knowing what to do, and how to get it done. Overwhelmingly the responses I received were a variation of, “Please give me a list of time tips so I can get more stuff done.”
But what if the
Many years ago my life changed when I had an epiphany about time, and this is how it happened.
A three-word question used to send chills down my spine: “Got a minute?”
I was the founder and president of a fast-growing tech company. Revenue more than doubling every year and with it, all the related challenges: hiring, sales, product launches, fund raising, and on and on. The “fires to put out” kept multiplying, as did the knocks on my office door followed by, “Got a minute?”
There was nothing wrong with people asking me for advice or help. I believed in an open door policy. I wanted to be helpful. And some might say I micromanage which encourages people to check in with me frequently. (Hey wait, I resent that remark!)
Soon, each day became consumed with other people’s priorities and problems as minute-meetings turned into 30-minutes or more. My priorities—the company’s strategic priorities—were washed away by the constant tide of got-a-minutes.
Finally, I printed a big 1440 on a piece of paper and taped it to the outside of my office door.
No other words. No explanation. Just “1440” in Arial, bold, 300-point font.
There Are 1,440 Minutes In Every Day
Primarily, the 1440 sign was meant as a constant reminder to me that time was my most valuable asset. Every time I walked into my own office I saw that giant reminder. Tick, tick, tick. I could not be careless with my minutes.
But what also happened is that when people stopped by to ask, “Got a minute?” and I would say yes, they would immediately ask, “So what’s that 1440 all about?”
I would explain that it was a simple reminder to me of the value of time and how I needed to “invest” each minute of my day very wisely.
I always made it about me, but suddenly the length of these got-a-minute meetings suddenly got shorter. People started solving their own problems. They learned to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. One person heard my explanation and replied, “You know what, I don’t need to talk anymore. It can wait until the team huddle on Monday.”
The Ultimate Time Management Tool: Your Mindset
The single most important thing when it comes to time and productivity isn’t a tactic or a trick—it’s a shift in mindset.
Self-made millionaires, Olympic athletes, straight-A students and other highly successful people think about time differently. They experience time differently.
Money can be lost and made again. Close friends often go away and are replaced with new friends. We can be sick and return to health, and if our disease is actually terminal it is emotionally devastating because so little time is left.
Time is unique. You can never lose time and get it back again. You can’t spend time and go out and earn more of it. You can’t buy it, rent it, or borrow it. Time is our most important asset.
Think about how much attention you give to your money. You think about money a lot, you spend time learning how to invest it, and you do what you can to protect it. You’d never give your ATM card and password to people who you hardly know, or leave your cash-stuffed wallet sitting out in public.
And yet we typically think little about our time. How often do you freely give your time away to people you barely know just because they want to pick your brain, or “run an idea by you” or even worse, just to “network”.
Why Minutes Are More Important Than Seconds
The magic number that can change your life is 1440. Realize there are only 1440 minutes in each day. You will never get them back.
Why don’t I focus on the 86,400 seconds in a day? Because seconds can slip away fairly easily. But minutes…just think of all the ways you can spend just one minute! You could write a thank you note, do 30 sit-ups, have a great idea, do a yoga Breath of Fire, or introduce yourself to a stranger. When I asked members of my Facebook page how they could use a single minute their creative responses included:
- Hug your mom
- Pet your cat
- Have your heart broken or break a heart
- Sing a song
- Write in a journal
- Eat an apple
- Drink a glass of water
- Send a text to someone you are thinking about
- Pray or Meditate
- Stand in the sun
- Write three things you’re grateful for
- Make a decision to give up smoking
- Apologize
- Take a photo that will turn into a memory
- Plank
- One really, really good kiss
Highly successful people feel the passage of time. They know the potential that every minute holds and know the cost of “giving away” even a single minute.
When you wake up and begin to feel the daily countdown—1440, 1439, 1438—procrastination melts away, saying “no” to others and yes to yourself becomes far easier, focus becomes effortless and your productivity will increase.
How would your life change if each and every day you truly felt your 1440 minutes?
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What's your time management profile? Discover ways to improve your productivity by taking The Time Management Style Assessment.
