In an interview over a decade ago, Bill Clinton was asked how he was able to be as successful as he was. Whether it was in academia, in Business, or climbing the ranks as a politician, Clinton said one key thing was the secret to his success. 

He simply managed each hour of each day by having a specific, focused purpose for each hour. 

It makes sense, but I wanted to look into this a little further to see what it meant to me personally, and if I could apply it to my own life. 

These days, I’ve been told by a few people that I need to relax. Admittedly, I do feel like I’m always on the go go go, albeit at my own pace. I’ve always been a stickler for schedules and to-do lists, but these days I’ve really had to be careful of how I manage my time. Here is my current schedule today: 

Without little reminders throughout the day, I would be totally lost. I’ve been managing my days like this, just as many people do with their schedules. My calendar is filled with both business and personal things- it’s all commingled throughout the day. I realized that if I did not do this, I’d fall victim to the lesser priorities nagging at my attention. And in Los Angeles, one HAS to do this if they want to shave hours off their commute time. 

While we often overlook it, it’s truly the little things, the little decisions, and little times that all add up to a cumulative definition of what the hell one has done over the course of a year. 

I have found that this deliberate allocation of focus is critical to achieving one’s goals in life. It’s like stabbing a big monster thousands of times with little needles to kill it. Each hour is a needle. 

Either you use it to stab the monster, or stab yourself. This is how Clinton did it; that’s how you and I can do it!