Always Late – we are always optimistic about time. Think we can do more than we have time for. The one last thing to do just before you leave for work. Time Illiteracy is a real challenge. At work we are expected to meet on the nose at 1pm but this leaves no margin for error.
Meeting scheduled for 1.00pm. At 12:55 we begin a new task. Absorbed for the first time that morning, we leave the project, rush out of the door, leaving important papers or preparation behind. So how do we manage time?
Tips – time yourself and how long things take – showering and washing and drying your hair in the morning? You think it takes 15 mins – in reality it’s 25 mins.
Set reminders and alarms to keep on task. Do not estimate how long it takes.
BE EARLY if you are meeting someone professionally or personally – make being early a VALUE so you are reliable for yourself and others.
You cannot feel or see time and add a distraction in like a new project or an article to read now. We are wired for interest in the moment and the thing we need to do gets forgotten.
Hyper focus messes with us – we can lose time in our own areas of interest and times slips away.
We have Future Myopia and only find our motivation just before we HAVE to do things. We are in the moment. No sense of urgency that we need to plan. So, we leave things until we feel motivated.
Lewis Carroll the author of Alice in Wonderland understands the concept of time as the White rabbit carries his watch as he is perpetually worried about being late.
We are controlled by time at work and in life, we have schedules and lists and calendars and commitments.
Tips – Limit your options. Ask for only two opportunities from your friend or colleague for meetings so you can choose just one option which works for you.
Our hyper focus makes us successful in all arenas but it’s our executive function that challenges us to live and work to our potential.
ACTION – Share in the comments how you have changed your habits around time – have you made it your value, have you arrived early or shifted a deadline?
Tomorrow is about becoming more aware of how you might procrastinate.