What is 8760? It is the most important number in MY life. It’s the most important number in YOUR life. Actually, it’s life itself.
8760 is the number of hours in a year and represents the most important asset we have…TIME.
Peter Drucker, one of the most highly regarded and well-known management consultants in modern history, had these things to say about time:
“Effective people, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes.”
“The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not increase.”
“People are time consumers. And most people are time wasters.”
“Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.”
The first thing I do with my coaching clients is a time audit. I like to think of it as a 7-day, 24-hour-a-day game film of the client’s life. As you can imagine, creating this is not an easy task and the
results usually are shocking. For some, it’s like standing naked in front of the mirror, and REALLY looking at yourself.
Just take a pencil and calculator and start playing with how you spend your time. For example:
Sleep – 7 hours per night.
7 hours x 365 days = 2,555 of 8,760 hours or 29.17%.
Exercise – 1 hour per day x 5 times per week x 52 weeks = 260 hours or 2.97%
These are both important and good uses of your time. Now put in how much TV you are watching daily, how much time you are spending with your spouse or children, time spent in your career, etc. Is the picture what you thought it was? Are there areas that are out of whack? (Let me know in the comments below!) This could be a wake-up call regarding how you are spending your life.
A good friend of mine, Robert Cooper, gave me a wrist band that I never take off. It says “GPS in LAT” which stands for: Greatest Possible Significance in the Least Amount of Time. Powerful words to think about, and more importantly to live by.
We just completed a leadership camp at my ranch with eight high end, extremely successful professionals and business owners, from the Los Angeles area. We introduced the 8760 concept to them, and one recently called me to say that he just ordered his new license plate which will read: 8760. What a great idea! Every day he gets into his car, he will be reminded of his most important life’s number.
While we are alive, we all have the same amount of this resource. We use every ounce of it each day, and can’t recover it once it’s gone. The key to your to success just might lie in how you use your share.
Let me know in the comments below.
