I’m part of a mindset that doesn’t believe my work is the only description that defines me. In the 18 waking hours of my day I spend 8 committed to my company and the other 10 committed to me. This is focused on fulfilling other creative and personal endeavours. I’ve experienced recently that it’s not time I need to manage, but my energy. Think about it, one can’t control time, but one can control energy. The skill of getting a lot done, efficiently and effectively, in one hour has been the biggest skill I’ve earned over the last few years.
Now why is this important? Sounds exhausting? That’s what I thought as well before I jumped on this wonderful journey of doing more with my time. Gifting your mind an outlet to do more by managing your energy and mental strength makes you better at your core job, fulfilled as a person and educated as a human.
I’ve had a lot of young colleagues come to me and say I don’t have time to think or do other things. In full disclosure I’ve been that young person too. Leaving jobs and positions to move on to another one where I’m exhausted all over again and repeating the same sentence “I don’t have time to think or do more with my life. I’m always tired.” The key word here is “tired”.
Now to manage my “tired” I trained my mind to operate in compartments:
1) tasks & activities that make me money today
2) tasks & activities that could make me money tomorrow
3) activities and experiences that make me happy
4) events I can’t control and need to not obsess over.
Breaking this down further
a)During my hour long run I only imagine my ideal future. It’s blue sky thinking, but for myself. A professional scenario I desire or a personal scenario I want. For eg: me on the cover of a magazine for something I built, closing a massive deal, recusing animals from the zoo, doing some real good in the world or simply my large family gathered together on an outdoor, full of food and laughter, dining table. This helps me keep imagining the ideal future I would like. Some days is different, some days it’s repeated. But this helps me put my short term irritants in perspective. Thinking about a beautiful tomorrow I can build, helps me come back charged up and take on my day.
b)The meditation is to simply calm my mind. Be able to break into columns what I can control and what I can’t in my day gives me ease. I go after everything I can manage and not obsess over anything I can’t. Lifesaving hack, this one.
c)The 15 min breaks every 90 mins pulls me out of any hole I may be in. Even on generally easy days these breaks are like power naps. Gives me an instant boost to do more in the next 90.
To wrap up I’ll end with a quote I read somewhere “extraordinary productivity is not about time management, it’s about managing your decisions, attention and energy”.
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