How I Won the War-on Only 10 Minutes a Day
by Curly Barrett

As I look over my sad excuse for a dockyard, I am dismayed at what I see. The hulls of a half-dozen of Germany's finest ships strewn about like sailboats after a hurricane. The Konig waits for her fourth gun; the Lutzow is only half-planked; the Seydlitz is without a radio; the Scharnhorst is nearly ready for it's fiberglass bottom; the Steir is ready for its motor; the Posen is merely a showy display of superstructure over a hull that is as empty as the Tinman's chest; the mighty Bismarck, a Swampworks kit that I received as a Christmas present from my wife over a year ago, stands majestically atop a pile of sawdust left over from the Carter Administration.

The piles of tools and supplies are precariously stacked in towering piles that would put Fibber McGee and Molly to shame. The two chairs in the dockyard have a board between the top of the backs of the chairs to provide additional work space. The bottle of jet glue is somewhere...

Yet this is just standard operating procedure for me. I have too much going on-three little boys, graduate school homework, a few hobbies, freelance work-and very little time. So when I do work on the boats, I don't waste time by cleaning up!
And every once in awhile, I notice that I am ignoring the boats entirely.

When that happens, I fall back on the "magnificent obsession" plan that helped me earn the 1986 Rookie-of-the-Year award. That plan is simple and easy, but gets the job done.

First, admit you have too much going on in your life...don't worry and fret.

Second, try to spend just 10 minutes a day in your dockyard, no more..no less. That ten minutes is amazing! I can put most of my tools away in just 10 minutes. I can add a sheet of balsa to a hull in 10 minutes. I can put on a waterline in just 10 minutes. I can even find the glue bottle in 10 minutes.

Best of all, I can lose track of time in 10 minutes...and that's how I do it. Just 10 minutes at a time.

Make the commitment to put in those 10 minutes every day. Your fleet is counting on you!