The Creative Genius Corner
Lessons, musings and advice from the author of ‘The Life I Won’
Why Time Is Precious
One of the things that crops up often with my clients is a challenging relationship with time.
‘Not enough time’ is something I hear often as an excuse to not accomplish goals.
Time is an interesting subject that people don’t really understand.
Have you ever sat and thought about what time really is?
Our relationship with time
Most people have a love/hate relationship with time.
When we have time to spare, we love to dilly dally and ‘take our time’.
We meander through our tasks and don’t worry when there is no time constraint.
If there is ‘too much’ time we say that we are bored!
Have you ever heard or said any of these?
- There’s never enough time
- Time passes too quickly
- I just never seem to be able to catch up
- I am always behind time
I am going to bet that you say these or something similar at least once a day.
But you are not being truthful because there is plenty of time, you just may not be using it wisely.
If you change your perception of time, it can change your entire day!
But only if you want to and you are ready to view things differently.
Creating space for time
When you are planning your day, be good to yourself and plan the time for your success.
Choose your highest priority task and allocate enough time to it so that you can not only work on it without stress, but also enjoy its completion before moving on.
I am going to guarantee that you will be surprised at the results.
When you make time and space for success, you are more likely to make success happen.
When I teach planning and productivity, I ask you to consider all the things that make your life better:
- Shopping so that your fridge and cupboards are filled with healthy food so that you can eat well
- Cooking and preparing that food so that your body and mind are nourished
- Exercise and self-care activities so that you feel good
- Time for family and friends
- The things that you must do to ensure your business is successful
There is more to this training than just these things, but when we miss them out, we mismanage our time.
Ben Franklin said, ‘do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.’
Never have I heard a more accurate statement.
Time is precious, treat it that way, plan it with intent and respect and see how much you achieve in your day.
Here are my top 5 tips on planning to perfection:
- The first entry in your diary should be the time to plan your diary for the following week. I allow myself 2 full hours for this task so that I can really think about what I want and don’t want in there.
- Make a list of the top priority things that you must achieve in that week which will make the biggest impact on your life and business.
- Do the most important things early in the week and early in the day. If you have the big stuff done by Tuesday, the rest of the week will feel like a breeze.
- Make sure that you allow more than enough time for those important tasks so that you can do them well with no stress.
- Make the last task in your diary a review of your week so that you can reflect on how much you have achieved and learn from the things that did not go well.
I hope that taking the time to read this has helped you to think about doing even one small thing differently.
Give yourself time to give yourself time.