We are down to less than 90 calendar days remaining in 2024. Some may feel like 2025 can’t get here fast enough. Others feel like 2024 is moving by too quickly. Still, others don’t let the concept of time get in the way of their thoughts and emotions. I’m one that uses the concept of time to help me function in ways in which I can attempt to maintain some sort of control of my behaviors during the things I do in life.
For example, one thing I do is try to balance the amount of time I spend on activities each day. I have a pretty good understanding of time for daily rituals, chores, planned activities and the like. I try to balance the important and urgent matters against the not important but urgent matters to allow me to maximize the time spent on important but not urgent activities.
So, what type of activity do I classify Amateur Radio as? That depends. Some of the activities in my Amateur Radio universe are definitively in the important and urgent bucket. Writing this column is a good example of a deadline driven project falling into the urgent and important class. Most of the others presently fall into the important but not urgent bucket. Some of the remainder drop into the urgent but not important category and a few wind up in the not important and not urgent pile.
Here are some important but not urgent class items; learning / refining an operating skill like Morse Code, experimenting with the different operating modes on various radios, investigating alternative logging applications, planning ahead for upcoming club events, looking for operational performance improvements to save time in routine tasks, and the like. While a target date associated with a specific task in these activities may be useful, most of the time I manage time by estimating backwards from the goal to the starting point and then figure that into the time allotment remaining from the “must do” items in my “to do” list. Presently, I am placing a high priority on time spent learning Morse Code and translating that knowledge to CW operation.
Daylight Saving Time ends on November 3, 2024. In the meantime, make the most of your 2024 DST and enjoy your time on the radio!
73, Mike KN4OAK
