Take Your Time Seriously
So many people seem to feel that their lives are rushing by at an ever-increasing manic speed! Are you one of these? Does it seem as though you are caught in a relentless spiral of time problems? What is stopping you taking more control of your time and your life? It is an interesting idea to list the "reasons" - and then consider them individually. Challenge yourself. If you had to change that, how would you? The reality is that the answers to getting out of this time turmoil lie with you!
Working with people at all levels, in a wide range of organisations over a number of years, it strikes me that the root of the problem is that so many of us do not take time seriously! We overlook the basic fact that time is a resource! To borrow a quote, "The supply of time is totally inelastic. Time is perishable and cannot be stored. Time is totally irreplaceable and cannot be stored." Most of us forget to treat time as a perishable resource and appear to take it for granted.
A friend of mine lent me a book, which may be out of print by now, "The Art of Time" by J-L Servan-Schreiber. He refers to the concept of time mastery, which I love! If we want to move beyond the reactive, rushed lifestyle many of us are living we need to develop time mastery! The truth is we cannot actually master time, what we can do is master what we do with our time. To do this we have to begin to value our time as a precious resource. Recgnise that every day which passes is one which has gone. We cannot get it back and rerun it!
Servan-Schreiber has a simple approach, which I believed in even before discovering his book!
We can only start to take control of our time when:
* we accept that we choose what we do with it
* we know what we want to do with it
* we start to be proactive with our use of time
This first point is key. We have to take more ownership for what we do with our time. We are making choices - albeit often at an unconscious level! If we do not value our time highly we will allow others to take control of it. This can then lead to resentment as we feel put upon! Another aspect of this can be a contribution to feeling pressure mounting to becoming stressful.
There are many reasons why we grow into adults who do not think about choice when using time. Upbringing can have a part to play. A wish to get on with others, or to be seen to be helpful are understandable contributors. These are very true if we do not take our own time seriously! We have to value it, both at work and in our personal lives.
Another challenge which many of us face is deciding what we want to do with our time. If we do not have priorities among our tasks, or outcomes we want or need to achieve, we have no reason to value our time. Identifying some key priorities of things to be done, or setting some goals will help. This gives us a chance to work towards things, and to achieve them which can make us realise that our time is important! By having this focus, we can feel we have more control with our time.
Having things we want to achieve means we can plan to work towards them. In turn, this encourages us to be more proactive. This puts us in more control and allows us to feel positive about what we are doing, which means less pressure and less stress!
Taking time seriously will not just happen. We have to make it happen by our actions and, more importantly, by our thoughts and wishes. The behaviours required to manage our time differently are comparatively easy to learn and apply. They are mainly common sense! What stops most of us using them are the messages and thoughts running in our head! Know what really matters to us. Identify our values. When we spend our time in a way which is meeting our values we are happier and more motivated. When we feel as though we are being pulled or pushed into spending time in ways which are not meeting our values - the opposite occurs.
This is easy to put on paper and to talk about. For most of us the challenge is to apply it in our day to day lives! We have to face up to the fact we are responsible for our own time. Once we can accept this, we are on the journey to taking time seriously and living the life we want.
To achieve this, we can take some simple steps. (Well, simple on the face of it - hard in that they make us face a reality about where the ultimate choices lie!)
* Analyse what we do with our time. Keep a simple time log of what we do each day for a week or two. This usually provides some interesting insights!
* Recognise our own bad habits around using time. What do we put off? What do we spend a lot of time on because we enjoy it?
* Identify who and what distracts us or interferes with our time.
* Be realistic in what we plan to do and in the deadlines we set ourselves!
* Set some form of time plan - whether daily lists, weekly or monthly.
A great book to help to keep things in perspective is "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and it's all small stuff)" by Robert Carlsson. He reminds us to keep things in perspective about time. Having said that, take your time seriously - it is your time and your life is your time!!
Working with people at all levels, in a wide range of organisations over a number of years, it strikes me that the root of the problem is that so many of us do not take time seriously! We overlook the basic fact that time is a resource! To borrow a quote, "The supply of time is totally inelastic. Time is perishable and cannot be stored. Time is totally irreplaceable and cannot be stored." Most of us forget to treat time as a perishable resource and appear to take it for granted.
A friend of mine lent me a book, which may be out of print by now, "The Art of Time" by J-L Servan-Schreiber. He refers to the concept of time mastery, which I love! If we want to move beyond the reactive, rushed lifestyle many of us are living we need to develop time mastery! The truth is we cannot actually master time, what we can do is master what we do with our time. To do this we have to begin to value our time as a precious resource. Recgnise that every day which passes is one which has gone. We cannot get it back and rerun it!
Servan-Schreiber has a simple approach, which I believed in even before discovering his book!
We can only start to take control of our time when:
* we accept that we choose what we do with it
* we know what we want to do with it
* we start to be proactive with our use of time
This first point is key. We have to take more ownership for what we do with our time. We are making choices - albeit often at an unconscious level! If we do not value our time highly we will allow others to take control of it. This can then lead to resentment as we feel put upon! Another aspect of this can be a contribution to feeling pressure mounting to becoming stressful.
There are many reasons why we grow into adults who do not think about choice when using time. Upbringing can have a part to play. A wish to get on with others, or to be seen to be helpful are understandable contributors. These are very true if we do not take our own time seriously! We have to value it, both at work and in our personal lives.
Another challenge which many of us face is deciding what we want to do with our time. If we do not have priorities among our tasks, or outcomes we want or need to achieve, we have no reason to value our time. Identifying some key priorities of things to be done, or setting some goals will help. This gives us a chance to work towards things, and to achieve them which can make us realise that our time is important! By having this focus, we can feel we have more control with our time.
Having things we want to achieve means we can plan to work towards them. In turn, this encourages us to be more proactive. This puts us in more control and allows us to feel positive about what we are doing, which means less pressure and less stress!
Taking time seriously will not just happen. We have to make it happen by our actions and, more importantly, by our thoughts and wishes. The behaviours required to manage our time differently are comparatively easy to learn and apply. They are mainly common sense! What stops most of us using them are the messages and thoughts running in our head! Know what really matters to us. Identify our values. When we spend our time in a way which is meeting our values we are happier and more motivated. When we feel as though we are being pulled or pushed into spending time in ways which are not meeting our values - the opposite occurs.
This is easy to put on paper and to talk about. For most of us the challenge is to apply it in our day to day lives! We have to face up to the fact we are responsible for our own time. Once we can accept this, we are on the journey to taking time seriously and living the life we want.
To achieve this, we can take some simple steps. (Well, simple on the face of it - hard in that they make us face a reality about where the ultimate choices lie!)
* Analyse what we do with our time. Keep a simple time log of what we do each day for a week or two. This usually provides some interesting insights!
* Recognise our own bad habits around using time. What do we put off? What do we spend a lot of time on because we enjoy it?
* Identify who and what distracts us or interferes with our time.
* Be realistic in what we plan to do and in the deadlines we set ourselves!
* Set some form of time plan - whether daily lists, weekly or monthly.
A great book to help to keep things in perspective is "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and it's all small stuff)" by Robert Carlsson. He reminds us to keep things in perspective about time. Having said that, take your time seriously - it is your time and your life is your time!!