How to Shape Your Time So You Get What You Want

Are you doing what you really want to do with your time? If not, then you might want to try the following thinking exercises to help you sculpt your life ever closer to the fantasy life in your head.

First, get a piece of paper and make a list of all the things you want to do during your lifetime no matter how crazy or undoable some of the things on your list might seem. If you want to go on an African safari and become a famous gorilla researcher, then write it down. If you want to sip coffee at a Left Bank café in Paris, then by all means, put it on your list.

Include all the seemingly mundane things you want to do, too. Do you want to spend more time with your children, your spouse or your parents? Write it down. Don’t hold back. Be as wild and daring as you want to be. Let yourself dream big. Even if you want to have a date with Tom Cruise or sip tea with a queen, put it on your list. This might take a while. Try to not leave anything out that you want to do or experience.

Once you have finished the above exercise (and not necessarily in the same sitting) take another piece of paper and ask yourself, “If I had a million dollars in the bank that was exclusively for me and I had no responsibilities and knew I would not need the money in the future, how would I choose to spend a perfect day? Maybe you want to write a novel, talk to a friend or own a ranch and raise goats. Whatever it is, write out your perfect sort of day. These are not necessarily the big event things you want to experience, but your idea of your perfect day of living. Again, don’t hold back. If you see yourself living in a farmhouse in the south of France with the partner of your dreams, who also miraculously does all the cleaning while you pursue what you believe you were put on the planet to do, then write it down.

People are often surprised at how powerful these two exercises are. They help you figure out what your big dreams are, how to see your priorities clearly and how far away from or close to your dreams and perfect daily existence you are. Once you know that you can lay out a plan to use your precious time for what you really want in life.

— Adapted from Wishcraft: How To Get What You Really Want by Barbara Sher


 

Deadlines Date to Civil War 

Are you meeting your deadline? Have you wondered where the word deadline came from? We all know that the meaning of meeting a deadline is a somewhat overwrought description of the urgency of the task at hand. These days it’s mostly used by journalist types and as a way of talking about getting work done by a certain date or time in most companies. Deadline is what is known as a metaphor.

The word deadline got its start in a much more literal sense, however. The origin of the word dates back to the American Civil War and to Andersonville, Ga., specifically, where a prisoner-of-war camp was established by the Confederacy. The prison was an unpleasant place. It covered only 16 acres and did not have proper sanitation. The prison population rose to 30,000 at times. Men were packed in without sufficient food or supplies. Between February 1864 and April 1865, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were held there. More than 13,000 prisoners died within its confines.

The camp was run by Captain Henry Wirz, a Swiss mercenary, who was known for his vicious, sadistic tendencies. After the closure of the camp, he was captured, tried and executed for the way he ran the prison.

The prison was almost impossible to escape and was surrounded by “pigeon roosts” for guards to keep watch over prisoners. Along the stockade, there were wooden stakes driven into the ground at intervals. These stakes formed an imaginary line that prisoners were not allowed to cross. Anyone who crossed this imaginary line was considered to be making a run for it and was shot dead on sight no questions asked. That imaginary line became known as the “deadline.”

We use the term today in a way that is a mere reflection of its origin as a limit that cannot be ignored without great peril to our survival in the workplace.

— Adapted from That Takes the Cake by R. Brasch