Time, Space and Money

In my first technical theatre class at Yale School of Drama, the professor introduced the concept of: Time, Space and Money. Those three things constrained everything that you might build for theatre. With unlimited time, space, or money one could build anything. In the real world, time, space and money is always limited. The challenge of technical theatre management was how to use your time, space, and money as efficiently as possible to create the biggest impact.

Over the years I realized that what was true for technical theatre was true for all arts, and for life. Picasso's famous painting about the Spanish Civil War, the Guernica, is huge. The reason it's not bigger is that his canvas stopped at the height of Picasso's studio. James Cameron spent years and millions of dollars creating the special effects for Avatar. With more money, he might have made them faster. Even a successful director with a Hollywood blockbuster budget still has to create within those constraints.

You face similar limits in your own life. We all do. The question is: what are we going to do with the resources we have? If you've started from the beginning of this blog, I hope by now you have identified your objective and have begun to create a plan for your life. In order to achieve your objective you must think about where to put your resources to create the maximum impact.

In this post we'll talk about time. How do you spend yours? I challenge you to take one typical day and write down how you spend your time -- So much for sleeping, so much for meals, snacks, work and recreation. Most people fill their lives with small details. Days go by where they don't work on their dreams. Stars work every day, especially when they're starting out. How much time are you spending working toward your dream?

In the next two posts I'll discuss space and money. Have a Happy Holiday season.

Time