Time management

As I was saying to my friend Mary the other day, not controlling our time and having the constant feeling of always being behind schedule is something we nearly all experiment nowadays

Except if we do make the effort to do something about it.

ACTION TIME !

Don’t you think ? I do.

Whether we are unemployed, self-employed, an employee, an employer or … or whatever, we usually feel time is flying far too quickly for what we would like to achieve.

And we can easily think

“oh, if only I didn’t have this or that to do, I could be so much more free, I would have so much more time !”

. . . ermmm maybe yes, maybe not.

I do not believe one second in the ’maybe yes’ by the way

One thing is sure, we cannot extend the number of hours we have per day to be active and you know what ? This is our luck ! Otherwise I can predict you that some of us would have 72 hours in a day … and would still need more.

I will never forget two testimonies I did read a few years ago:

L’Abbé Pierre (late French priest who created a social movement to fight for accommodation rights in France- http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abb%C3%A9_Pierre) and the Dalai Lama are people who have / had chosen to have more or less 4 hours of prayers / meditation per day. They both said that this, instead of being a waste of time, was their only way to be able to keep up with all they have / had to do : interviews, writing books, writing articles, being politically involved, etc. …

Do you know why ? Because doing so, they automatically slowed down the speed of their thoughts and as such the rhythm of their body as well; they could have a better perception on what was the most important and what was the least; what had to be done and what could wait;

Because it is everything but about controlling our time;

It is about making voluntary and realistic choices instead of undergoing them.

It is about having a feeling of satisfaction after a good accomplishment.

And the best news is

This is possible !

As always, the very first step is about recognizing where you are and decide on a few actions and choices.

For making choices, you first need to know the way you are organized at this moment of your life to be able to choose if / what you want to modify.

For one week, spend time to list everything you do and, if ever you have a repetitive activity, the time you spend on it.

That gives you an idea of what you have really done, instead of having only a subjective perception as we can be very good at not willing to admit certain things; you may be surprised by what you can discover about your very personal organization;

Leave that list aside, let it decant   ;o)

Now, have a new beautiful page, paper, word doc, paint … and write down / draw / ppt … what comes first from your ‘to do list’

Write down ‘only’ 3 points

If you have a list of 50 things to do, clearly, you won’t do them all, and you know it …. What’s the point ? You are mixing what is important and the rest.

Now, swapping time !  You have you 2 lists in front of you; it is time to decide on what you want / can withdraw from the first list to insert an item from the second list.

If you want to achieve something from the second list, you have to do so, otherwise you will keep running after your time and what you want to do.

Changing nothing can be a very powerful state for falsely useful feeling   ;o)

Work on those lists, swaps one thing at a time, slowly, gently

In life, haven’t’ you noticed that a solution, an enrichment, comes from what is different, comes from the opposite, as this is the territory of what hasn’t been explored yet …

So, you are running After your time ? Stop. as I already said, it is urgent to slow down.

One huge solution lays there:
Take time for doing what seems to be nothing but can open so much more energy !

Recognise and act !

-          Have ‘nothing to do’ slots in your schedule; that is to allow you to slow down. Brain and body.

-          Throw your current ‘to do list’ in the trash bin

-          Recognise:  list what you are currently filling your days with

-          List the 3 more important things for you to achieve today

-          Swap

Do that and tell me what change you noticed in your daily organization and within yourself

Enjoy !

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