August, 2006: Some smart aleck decided to put time in a bottle and franchise it!

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Written and published by: Dr. Toby Silverton & Dr. Bev McLagan

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In This Issue: Go anywhere in this issue fast by clicking on a topic.

• Personal reflections
• What are we thinking about? It's time again!
• Building Solutions
• NEW! Resources – quick links to check out resources
• Contact/unsubscribe info

Personal Reflections

It’s time again…no, we really mean it, the topic is time…again! It is also confession time, you see we have time to do what we really need/want to do. Let me say, this didn’t happen by accident. Oh no, this life is the result of soul searching, planning, some sacrificing, and most definitely, risk taking. And yet, we often find ourselves lamenting the lack of time and haggling over scheduling. Of course, we too live normal lives with all the serial interruptions and limitations, some self-made, some other-made, but theoretically, there is no lack of time. Since some smart-aleck decided to put sand in a bottle and franchised it so others could make a zillion dollars on time-management schemes there is the same amount of time that there has always been.

We’ve experienced time in “slo-mo” and felt time “rushing at us”, sometimes simultaneously, but time didn’t change, perception did. It’s a brain thing. We’ve suffered our share of lectures where we literally watched the minute hand tick by and others where the bell rang when things were just heating up. Same clock, same hour, different viewpoint.

If we had a dollar or pound or peso or one of anything for everytime a client said “if only I had more time” or “ I have to learn time management”, we’d be on the beach in Acapulco never having another thought about time management, well except “what time do you want to eat, sleep, shop or hit the pool”.

What are we thinking about?

Can't help thinking about the lies we all tell ourselves about time; how we can steal more time, stretch time, or just bend it a little. I think it’s called wishful thinking. How we view time, what we believe about time impacts what we do with our time. And, our perception of time shapes what our life looks like. How many of these have you indulged in?

When I have more time I will… When things slow down I will… When I’m caught up I will… If I just had an extra day…I’ll get to it later when time opens up.

OK, it’s time to get the kids out of the room…there is no tooth fairy; Mrs. Claus is not baking cookies anymore she’s ordering online; and the Easter Bunny is on a low-carb regime. There, it’s out. So what’s the “truth” about time?

You can’t buy more time. You can’t turn back time. You can’t make up time. Time does not fly nor does it stand still. And here’s the big one… you don’t have more time. [Sit down and take a deep breath.] Time is neutral, time is finite. There is a beginning, a middle and an end; to an hour, to a day, to a week, to a year, to your life. Although our experience of living is by no means linear, time unfortunately is. There are no extras. There’s today and there’s tomorrow, and the next and the next, but each day stands on it’s own, your opportunity for that 24 hours.  

We alternate between thinking we have all the time in the world (hence procrastination) and no time at all (think inefficient multi-tasking). Think about it. Our days are our lives in miniature. How you use time to achieve what you want in your day reflects where you are going in the bigger picture and how you are going to get there.

There are far too many things in life that we have absolutely no control over, and time is one of them. Now we didn’t say that you couldn’t manage time as a resource. It’s the bad news/good news thing. There are only 24 hours in a day and that’s not going to change, but hey, what you do with all 24 is essentially up to you. It’s really more about self-management than it is time-management.

Think about how you would like to see yourself managing your time. What would an “ideal” day of you managing yourself in time look like? Does this day look anything like the day you are planning to live today or tomorrow? If not, take some small step today that moves you a little closer to what you would describe as your ideal time-managed day. Small steps get goals met!

You will slowly but steadily close the gap between your ideal time-managed day and the frazzled or empty one you may be facing.

So for those clients who say to us, “I can’t imagine every having enough time or balance”, we say, try our Live the Solution™ philosophy. We live and work by it, and it works…not every second of every hour of every day, but what does, we live in the real world. If we lived the problem we’d never have our time needs met, but when we live the solution we inevitably move forward. When you start your day ask yourself, “what one small thing can I do toward the solution” [of whatever you are facing or trying to accomplish]? Now that’s a plan.

Building solutions

• Prioritize your day, day after day. Forget the usual “a-b-c or 1-2-3” way of prioritizing, way too linear for most of us. Instead make your To Do list your Absolute Must list and leave it at that…at the top of your page write: If I do nothing else today, I absolutely must do: then only write down what you absolutely must do. Try to keep it between 5-8 items.

• Know what is important to you in your work and your personal life. We’ve said it over and over again, but it warrants saying again: clarifying your values tightens your decision making which leads to more focus and better use of your time.

• Schedule, schedule, schedule. If it’s not written on your schedule it’s not important to you.

• Clarify what your time gobblers are. Some you may be able to eliminate but many you won’t, so don’t sweat it, just prepare for them. If you are ready for them, they won’t take as much time.

NEW! Resources – quick links to check out resources

• The Greatness Guide . (2006) Robin Sharma | Purchase from Amazon
  

• The Burnout Trap: Bounce Back from Over-Busy, Over-Tired and Overwhelmed! (2005) Toby Silverton, PhD. and Bev McLagan, PhD. http://www.theburnouttrap.com

We thank you for being out there. We thank you for reading what we put out into the world. There is lots of new stuff to come this year and we invite you to join us on this journey toward equilibrium and prosperity. If you would like to share any thoughts with us, we’d love to hear from you.

Till next month… Embrace Life

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