Why Are You Reading This Book?
You’re probably reading this book because you think you don’t have enough time in your life. And you probably think you can fix this problem if you can just become more efficient.

If that’s the way you feel, then close this book, take it back to the store, and get a refund. I can’t help you. You see, this is not a book about becoming more efficient at what you are doing now. There are books on time management to help organize your life. Go get one of them.

The truth is, you are already efficient at what you are doing! You don’t need more time to do the same things you are doing now. You need to do different things in order to have more time in your life!

If you are a typical person reading this book, you sense you are in trouble. You have over-scheduled your life and the lives of your children. You can’t seem to get ahead. You can’t even seem to keep up. You reach the end of each day completely exhausted, stressed out, and dreading another day, another month, another year of this frenzied existence.

Yet, you are part of the most productive, most efficient workforce that ever inhabited this planet. You have technology at your fingertips, convenience foods to prepare, entertainment in your
living room, and 24-hour access to the world via the World Wide Web.

You are doing everything at the speed of light. You have voicemail, e-mail, instant messaging and downloadable movies. You don’t have to wait for anything.

And you thought I would teach you how to do all this stuff faster? No way.

Not Time Management? Then What Is This Book About?
I am going to teach you to overcome Time Poverty. I define Time Poverty like this:

When you don’t have the time to do the things
you really WANT to do, because you are too busy
doing the things you think you HAVE to do.

Let me repeat that, so it really sinks in:

Time Poverty is: When you don’t have the time to
do the things you really WANT to do, because you
are too busy doing the things you think you HAVE to do.

When we think of poverty, we usually think in terms of financial poverty. But unlike financially poor people who don’t have money, Time-Poor people do have time. Remember, everyone gets the same 24 hours each day.

You will learn to overcome Time Poverty in this book. I will teach you a simple 5-step system to get out of this rat race by getting off the Fast Track at work. You will learn how to reconnect with the important people in your life. You will learn to live fully, and teach other people to do the same.

Two Concepts to Remember as You Read This Book: LifeTimers and Time Equity
I was recently talking to my daughter. “I am having trouble coming up with a good word to describe people’s lifetime for my book,” I told her. “I want to show readers how their time is
always running. They need to use it, or lose it!”

“I am reading a book that has something like that in it,” she said. “They have a big hourglass with no bottom on it. It’s called a LifeTimer.”

Wow! That was the clue I needed. And, it explained why so many people are living in Time Poverty. They think their lives are like an hourglass, rather than like a LifeTimer.

Look at the two pictures below. One of them, the traditional hourglass, is how most people measure their time. They spend their time by the hour. They go to work and trade their time: an hour’s work for an hour’s pay.

But your LifeTimer is different. Unlike an hourglass, when the sands of time run through your LifeTimer, that sand is gone forever. You can’t turn the glass over. And, unlike the hourglass,
you don’t know how much time you have in your LifeTimer.

Time-Rich people know they have a LifeTimer. They use their time as it runs out of the glass. They can’t save it. They can’t get any more of it. They need to use it minute-by-minute.

If you spend your time working for money, you can’t use your time for anything else. However, if you put your money to work for you, you can use your time for whatever you want! As you’ll
see, that is one of the secrets to overcoming Time Poverty.

Time Equity
In order to overcome Time Poverty, you have to understand another simple, but very powerful concept called Time Equity. Equity is something you own. We will discuss different types of
equity in this book. You can create equity, or it can be given to you. In either case, it is yours.

Time Equity is the total of all the time you own. We all own time, from the moment we are born. It doesn’t matter if you are born wealthy or poor. You own your time.

Throughout this book, you’ll hear me say you should not trade your Time Equity for dollars, but use your Time Equity to create other kinds of equity. You can then let that equity create dollars!
You see folks, it isn’t just time that’s running out of your LifeTimer, it’s Time Equity. Save more time for your life, and spend less time on your work. If you trade something besides time for dollars, you have more dollars and more time!

What’s Next?
Overcoming Time Poverty is divided into two parts, Time Games and How to Create a Time-Rich Life. You’ll find a brief summary at the beginning of each section.

Speaking of the beginning, are you ready to get started?

Time’s up! Let’s go!