Today's Thoughts about Time (And How We Manage It)

"Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.
" [Charles Richards]

Today’s thoughts fall into the “advice I ought to follow myself” category. But, writing more about it surfaces it into my dense and already crowded consciousness. So, maybe helpful to the greater effort. We'll see. 

I should be in a circus considering the amount of stuff I juggle. Work (which basically could be a 24/7 job if I let it), some volunteer stuff at my church which is very important to me, and always ends up taking more time than I plan for, a correspondence with over fifty people who are in prison – again, something really important to me as I am the only outside contact a couple of these folks have – and it matters a lot for me to be there for them, some Life Coaching with clients I’ve had for years, some graphic design for people I’ve also worked with for a long time, and then there’s favors from friends to look at this or that. Oh – and then moderating on the Prison Talk forum.

I’m not including the prep time for a couple of study groups I’m involved in. Lots of reading – or the fact that there are a few TV shows I really enjoy – and DVR on a regular basis. Practicing the piano and learning some new music –or just reviewing things I used to know. Am I forgetting something? Probably. Anyone care? Nope? Didn't think so. 

I’ve noticed that the biggest complication to my life isn’t necessarily the full, varied schedule; it’s how I think about that busy schedule. I have known this on some level for years, but recently have been thinking more and more about it.

Back in the mid-90’s I spent a couple of years as the Customer Service Supervisor for a software company that sold time management software. (Now Software). It was a wonderful product, and a lot of thought was given to how people process all the stuff we have to do on a daily basis. I learned a lot there. 

Let me back up a little further – a decade before working at Now Software I lived in a monastic community – each day was very highly regulated. There were little chunks of time, but those chunks were the same time, day in and day out. I found, during that period, that I got a lot done. A whole lot. Brought that experience to Now Software. Very helpful. 

What I learned was the difference between what I’ll call the “to-do” list model, and the “appointment chunk” model. In short, the difference between those two models can be explained like this; the “to-do” list model is a long list of things to do. (Amazing, huh!) When you’re done with your list, you’re finished with work. The “appointment chunk” – is setting time aside to do things on your “to-do” list, say between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM (with breaks, of course) but after the clock strikes five – you’re free to move about the cabin with unstructured stuff. Or, whatever else you want to do that might be fun but isn’t “list worthy”. (Or shouldn’t be).

I find it helpful to remind myself frequently that I can’t worry my way out of worrying, and that the most effective use of any moment is to fully do whatever it is I’m doing. The rest will get done later. That, I’m learning, is the most important part of creating and living an effective time management strategy.

By segmenting out the day, I have found it helpful and feel a little breathing room once the time assigned to work on something in particular is over. The trick is to keep the appointments I make with myself and focus on whatever it is I’m doing at that point to the exclusion of other things. No matter how compelling Facebook or email responses to fun and interesting stuff might be.

This model doesn’t work for everyone – but the more I use it, or the more I remind myself that it would be helpful (and healthful) for me to use it – the better and more effective it seems in getting things checked off my (long) “to-do” list while still having some semblance of personal space in my life to rest and recoup.

Like everything, the first step in looking at all of this begins with how we think about it or how we frame it to ourselves. Along with this comes some general guidelines; Consider these possibilities:

1. That you matter as much as anything you are doing. Take some time to take care of you.
2. If someone doesn’t like how you are doing things, either fix it or let it go. Spending a lot of energy worrying about what they said doesn’t help you or them.
3. Prioritize – Stephen Covey writes, “Put First Things First” – that means you know what needs to be first – take the time to figure that out and then deal with what you feel is most important – before you feel tired or inclined to dither with other stuff.
4. Focus – get done what needs to get done – little breaks are OK – and sometimes you just have to know when to come back to something. That’s OK too – give yourself permission to recognize that the creative muse takes coffee breaks too – and sometimes you have to wait until your muse comes back.
5. Give yourself permission to say “no”. Yep, this is one of the hardest for me.
6. Do one thing at a time. It’s tempting to multi-task, and you may feel like you need to, or you may feel like everyone else is doing it so you should be to. Just not the case. Focus on whatever is in front of you. Then, when you’re finished, move on to the next thing.

Pretty soon – no more things. Then you can go out and play with the other kids…or catch up on CSI episodes. Guilt free.