Sometimes obsessing over time management and spending your time thoughtfully and wisely can seem important, but at other times it can seem like just a chore. Why even bother when no one else you know is obsessing over where the minutes in their days are going. Why are you? And if your best friend can still be happy if their Sunday evening is spent watching television or mindlessly surfed away on Youtube or Facebook, why can't you?

Like all of us, my own personal pendulum swings back and forth on this issue and sometimes I stumble onto something that gives the pendulum a boost in one direction or the other. Today I ran across a great post by Doug Muder that works backwards from death as a motivating boost towards living well, and is also not unrealistic or naive about what age will really mean to all of us. Doug is religious, and so he frames his insight in a religious context, but I think the lesson he learns from his parent's and wife's mortality applies to us all, regardless of our religious views. I'd like to share a choice selection with you:

The real sting of death is the thought that it wasn’t supposed to be this way, that I was supposed to be immortal, and all life’s possibilities were supposed to wait until I got around to paying attention. In that frame of mind, every drop that escapes or evaporates is tragic.

But when death is accepted, as I remember clearly, the focus shifts from what is being lost to what is being saved. Today, for example, I kept many parts of myself alive. I wrote something other people will read. (Sixteen-year-old me would appreciate that.) I played with children. My wife and I walked amidst the changing fall colors.

Someday all these droplets of life will be gone. Today they were here, and my cup could still contain them. That’s something to celebrate.

Please read the full thing here. You'll be glad you did. Nice work Doug.