I watch a lot of movies – all sorts, but in my movie tastes I’m not that evolved. I especially like eighties and nineties action pictures.  I really like movies like the Die Hard series and Lethal Weapon, even the new version of the Bourne Ultimatum.  And what I’ve learned from watching of these kinds of movies is that the hero – the one who kills all the bad guys – does not win by hunkering down, staying in hiding and waiting for them to come to him.  He wins by running right out in front of the villains – charging towards them with everything he’s got and screaming at the top of his lungs.  He lunges towards the competition firing – as they say – with both barrels.   He puts himself at tremendous risk and doesn’t quit until it’s over.  That’s the unreasonable approach.

Since the publication of Be Unreasonable, my consulting and speaking activities have multiplied dramatically.  While I didn’t have a ton of “free time” before the book came out, I seem to have less and less at an increasing rate.  This is not a complaint, just an observation.  I’m finding that my time is at a premium, and my goal is to use it as effectively as possible. I wrote a while ago that “time management” was a myth, and that you couldn’t really manage time per se.  I still agree with this.  But without a doubt you can have a great effect by choosing what you do with the limited time available. 

I’m now practicing what I call ‘unreasonable time management.” This means my goal is to only do things that matter, and which contribute, and not doing anything that doesn’t bring me closer, in a measurable way, to reaching my goals.  I’m dropping all obligations, all “shoulds,” and even all things that I promised to do, but simply do not make sense.  Each day I’m reviewing my time commitments and making new decisions. 

Also, I’m holding to the discipline of only doing those things which are on my calendar.  Which means that if I want to get something done, I have to schedule it.  What’s nice about this approach is that all things have to get scheduled, and as they get scheduled, nothing (or at least fewer and fewer things) are happening by either chance or inertia.   I’m not perfect at this, but I’m getting better.

They say that time is money.  I’m not sure I agree, but it does seem that they are freely exchangeable.  Right now I’m trading in both directions.  Sometimes it’s my time for money, other times, it’s my money for time.  Either direction involves a choice.