managing your time naturally 

There is a lot of information on time management available – a great variety of courses, manuals you can buy, and books you can read. Most that I have seen are designed by logical thinkers who have a natural tendency towards logical structured approaches. For many people, however, they attend the course, buy a time management diary-system, and find that they spend more time and energy trying to work with someone else’s logic, and someone else’s natural tendency which may not fit in with their own. For those who find a good fit, the system works well, and that is great.

But what do you do if you are not one of those?

Discover your Natural Inclinations

Firstly, find out what your natural inclinations are. Keep a time log for a week where you keep track of how you are using your time. Be vigilant with this and keep tabs on your time. There is nothing good or bad, or right or wrong around how you are using your time – the purpose of the log is purely for you to become aware of how you are working right now. Record even the shortest of activities – like the five minutes spent sorting out that morning’s mail. At the end of the week, look at your log. Is there some kind of pattern emerging? Do you find yourself being interrupted during the day? Did you block out time in your diary only to find yourself distracted easily?

A recent client has a short attention span. He had been on time management courses before which told him to block out a chunky piece of time in order to concentrate on one task. He would do this, only to find that he would get edgy after ten to fifteen minutes and wanting to move on to something else. He would then spend a significant amount of time and effort on chiding himself and trying his best to re-focus on the work he had assigned for that block of time... with little success.

When he kept his time log, he realised his natural tendency to lose his concentration after ten to fifteen minutes. He then organised his diary differently. Now, he would block out fifteen minute chunks instead. After each chunk of time, he would move on to the next job or task. At the end of the hour, he would come back to the first task or job. After two hours, he would end up with thirty minutes of work done on four pieces of work. In the past, he would have done fifteen minutes of the first task, and then spent time and energy trying to re-focus.

Focus with Passion

Coupled with this, also allow yourself to "Focus with Passion". We will always have more than one thing on the "to-do" list. When we focus with passion, we decide what we are going to focus on for that allocated chunk of time, and focus only on the one piece of work or task assigned. We literally and deliberately forget about all the rest of the stuff that are still on the to-do list while we attend to that one task. Multi-tasking is an impossibility – it simply does not exist. Whilst we may have several items on the go at the same time, we can only ever properly attend to one thing in any given moment. I call it multi-tracking - you hop from one track to the other in quick succession, and you might have several different tracks playing all at the same time! But it isn't doing lots of tasks in the same moment. A subtle difference perhaps, but, a good reframe if it makes it easier for you. So Focus with Passion.

Consider this Principle

Our only point of power is in the present.

Action Points

1. If they are not working well for you, throw out the time management techniques you’ve been taught.

2. Keep a time log for a week, to work out your own natural attention span.

3. Plan your diary in alignment with your natural attention span.

4. Focus with Passion.

5. Do the small to-do's straight away.

Quote

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." – Annie Dillard

"Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived." - Captain Jean-Luc Picard, from the film Star Trek: Generations

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