Time Management is Pain Management

Find Motivation in What Matters

We all have the same 24 hours in a day; nobody can “manage” their way to more. The ocean of time continues to flow regardless of our wishes to stem the tide. There is one difference between those who successfully surf the waves and those who wipeout under its tidal force. They learn to minimize the pain of doing what matters, and maximize the pain of deferring what matters.  

Deadlines: Turning Pain into Productivity

When I landed my first job as a game designer on the Marvel vs. DC trading card game, I had no idea what I was doing. I had never designed a game before. In fact, I had never done anything I would have considered remotely “creative.”

But I did have one thing in my favor: if I didn’t get the job done, I’d be fired. I had three months to prepare the game for printing, or I’d be heading back to the snow-covered streets of New York, pursuing a miserable career as a lawyer. Even though I lived in sunny San Diego, I still kept an ice scraper and shovel in my trunk for three years…