Time Management? Forget about it; Try this instead.
I miss wine. It’s only been 10-days, but it feels like a lifetime. Summer sun, sunset walks, and coming out of lockdown after months of being confined to the same 10-ish walls all feel like a recipe to be a social butterfly for the hot-weather outdoor sunshine season, and yet I’ve chosen to do the opposite. Am I a glutton for punishment? Yes. No. Maybe. I’m not sure. Can you repeat the question?
Seriously though, why now? I got to thinking about firmly pressing reset after 2020, and getting out damaging toxins and all the stuff that is slowing my system down to increase my productivity and output. Even watching negativity in the media day after day around COVID for 12-months now; it all has an impact.
There are no actions or choice we make that are cost-free. Usually, they come at the cost of our emotions, aka our energy, aka our productivity. Before long, we are sluggish, tired and feeling run down, producing sub-par results and wondering where things went wrong; making up all sorts of meaning.
Does it feel like there is never enough time in the day to get that to-do list done, achieve goals, run errands, learn new things, create, do great work, earn sufficient income, take care of others, be of service, get enough sleep, and on and on?
But, since we all get the same 24 hours, why do some people achieve so much more with their time than others?
If we google time management, many frameworks, methods, processes and definitions will come up. Here are some factors to consider which are less frequently written about, but are uber important.
Time-Management is energy management.
Time Mangement is pain management.
Time Management is stress management.
Time Management is managing our emotions.
Time Management is removing distractions.
Time Management is knowing how we spend or invest our time and noticing what we are getting.
Time Management is our ability to focus.
Accomplishing things,
Learning new things,
Doing things,
Creating stuff,
Thinking,
Getting good at stuff—aka practising,
All take a mental and emotional toll.
Finding ways to manage our emotions, energy, stress, remove distractions and increase focus and working with fierce determination towards our outcomes, goals and aspirations—with clarity and certainty—and we are on track to greatness, even if we are not masters of time-management in the traditional sense.
What can we do right now, today, to get started, with ease?
Focus on anchoring something small into our routines each day, like going for a walk, regularly moving our bodies, meditating for one breath, taking 30 seconds to stretch, texting someone and telling them how much we appreciate them, or saying one thing we are grateful for each night after our head touches the pillow before we go to sleep.
