Time “Management?” …Try TimeShifting Instead
Sign up for TimeShifters Teleclass starting June 23rd 2016.
I met a former student in a café recently, who sheepishly confessed, “I don’t have time to do your time class!” Her business is thriving but it’s taking all her energy. I promised her I’d write a blog post to explain why this actually means she desperately needs to take the time to shift her relationship with time.
This is the magic secret of TimeShifting. Right now the only thing you see is the long to-do list, or the endless tasks you don’t even have the time to write down. You just plunge into the fray to start doing something right now. Because you are overwhelmed. The only thing to do, you reason, is make yourself go faster, and get through those tasks. Then there will be time enough.
Actually, when you do this, you are imprisoning yourself in linear time, pretty much guaranteeing that you will stay there, fueled by caffeine, using only the most automatic parts of your brain, while freedom, fun, imagination and creativity are far away. It’s like you are headed straight down the freeway at 90 miles per hour, ignoring all scenery and side roads.
When you learn, instead, to stop, no matter what, and get into one of the other kinds of time—natural or spiritual—you actually create the space for things to happen more easily, more in flow. From this new space, you can make decisions about what is actually most important, create triage systems, and let go of the knee-jerk reaction you have to answer that email right now or just do the thing your client is clamoring for.
This is how more time is created. By you, shifting, not by adding hours to the day. But when you learn to live this way, you will feel like you have added hours. Mostly because when you are no longer imprisoned by linear time, but are balancing it with spiritual time (for creativity and decision-making about priorities) and natural time (for rest, rejuvenation, and connection with others) you will begin to create the life you long for, here and now, today.
Here is a simple thing you can do to practice, right now. After you are done reading this, don’t click on something else. Stop. Sit right where you are. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Just sit and breathe in and out. If fearful thoughts intrude, imagine putting them inside a helium balloon that you let float to the ceiling. You can pick them up again when you are done. Just keep breathing. This 5-minute pause can let you come back to your life refreshed, and better able to make decisions.
Oh, and if you think you might have time to change your relationship to time, click here for more information on TimeShifters classes or here to sign up for the next class which starts on June 23rd.
You can also click here to buy my book, It’s About Time: Finding Magic, Power and Ease in Your Life.