Making Time Last Longer
As I write this it is a surprisingly warm early March day. I’m reminded that for the next six months my schedule is going to include lots of golf which, while pleasurable, is going to eat up a lot of hours. About 15 each week if I play twice. That means I’m going to have to make the rest of my time last longer. Here are some ideas to do so.
I could increase my overall net energy by taking a 15 minute nap everyday. For me this works best late afternoon. For others right after lunch is the best time. The basic idea is that it is a reenergizing activity. Becoming a good napper is an acquired skill, so you have to practice. A simple way to start is meditation. You can start doing that by simply forcing yourself to sit quietly for five minutes and continually let any thought that comes to mind, flow out. Resting your eyes, especially if you do a lot of computer work, is important also. The benefits of napping, meditation and resting your eyes is that you’ll be more productive [efficiently effective]. That is you’ll get more done in less time.
Time management guru Harold Taylor suggested this: “Strive for excellence, not perfection; achievement, not activity; efficiency, not longer hours.” Striving for excellence, to me, means doing anything worth doing 95% perfectly. For many projects the last 5% is not an effective use of time. Achievement, not activity, comes from continuously refocusing on goals. Take a few minutes to refocus at the beginning of the year, month, week, day, afternoon. Efficiency can come from effective use of technology and effective delegation. Both of those come from “delegating to the present”. Learning how to use your software excellently, soon after you get it, is a way of delegating to the present. Giving a complete brief to delegatees, early in the process, is a way to ensure they do it right the first time.
Schedule your personal and family activities. Like naps these are rejuvenating. But work can intrude if you don’t have a firm commitment to them. The way to be committed is have them scheduled with other people. Not wanting to let them down will be one extra motivation to do them. Having a plan to watch TV alone is not R ‘n R and it’s easy to dismiss.
Clean up the messes in your life. This is another example of delegating to the present. Cleaning up your office means less distractions. Cleaning up administrative, financial, health, legal and relationship messes will help keep your mind clear so you can be more productive [effectively, efficient] doing your work.
Avoid information overload. Analyze what you’re doing with all the information you get from the internet in the form of e-newsletters etc. Can you be more ruthless and press the delete button sooner?
Plan tomorrow at the end of today. Get closure at the end of each day by planning what tomorrow will be about. This will make you more effective overnite. You won’t be subconsciously planning tomorrow because you’ve already done that in real time. Your subconscious will be free to think about the problems you will be facing tomorrow. This is essentially the procedure for what you do when you wake up in the middle of the nite thinking. The tonic is to write down what you’re thinking about so that your conscious brain knows it is parked somewhere and won’t be forgotten. And if it is a problem, your subconscious brain can be thinking about it.
