I have been asked by many people “How do you find the time to read as much as you do?” And that question is one that is not quickly answered. To begin with, good habits like reading schedules and so forth do not happen overnight. I recall when it was a remarkable challenge for me to read a dozen books in a year. This was during my college and seminary days where textbooks are all you read, and even then you are mostly summarizing and replicating portions of those books. Growing up homeschooled definitely helped, simply because reading was a way of life. There were many years in my childhood and adolescence where we had no technology like computers or televisions. That makes me sound like I’m 80 years old when I’m not even halfway there, but the context that I grew up in simply allowed for reading to be my main source of entertainment and an outlet for stress.
So, a foundation for these things are helpful but not necessary to begin recapturing time. You can start building that foundation now, certainly, if you are willing to do it. It is a crucial truth that we make time for the things that matter to us most. To some level, if it doesn’t matter to you enough, you will never do it. You will never recapture time that is wasted or ill-triaged. That sounds sort of draconian to say, but it is true. I have to make a conscious effort to not get on my phone, watch tv, sleep, or a number of other things in order to fit in the things that I really want to accomplish.
I use the example of book reading because it is so often associated with good time-management. But book reading can be a giant waste of time if you are not diligent. Poor books, poor reading skills, or poor planning can destroy your reading.
To the book, I found it simplistic but not incorrect. McGraw is onto something here with this book because our culture has become a vacuum of time wasters. Redeeming time makes the most sense for a Christian because we have been tasked with doing that very thing. Non-Christians do not share in this benefit, but instead must eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow they die. Christians, of all people, must disdain laziness and find ways of conquering time. Sometimes that is heroic like missions and bible translating and so on, and other times it is as simple as helping mom with the dishes and dad with the lawn.