Coaching Videos & Tips - May 23 2019 No.604
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Wouldn't life be effortless if we could just do the right things in the right order at the right time. But, then again, I keep telling you that life (in flow) is indeed effortless.
Don't forget, you can browse all 600 "back issues" in The Archive!
Give yourself enough time. The amount of people I talk to who are stressed because they're late for meetings because... they left late to get to the meeting (often because they were doing something that didn't need to be done then or, perhaps, at all).
Modern life is all about rush - it's cool to be in a rush. If you're not, you mustn't be either busy or important enough!
Give yourself more than enough time to do what you need to do and to be where you need to be. Funny thing is, you'll be far less... rushed!
I want to pick up on a comment that I got following last week's video on what we euphemistically call "Time Management" (we now know that, actually, we're talking about Me Management!). I made the point that good Me Management means that I make best use of time, informed, of course, by what I am striving (effortessly!) to achieve. It was suggested to me that, in not sticking to a schedule, you might be late for meetings or miss them altogether and that that's not how you should treat others.
Yes, if you've a meeting arranged with someone you need to be on time... my time is no more or less important than your time and, if I'm not on time, I am rude. Indeed, this is something that I come across regularly in the businesses with which I work. You might have ten people sitting in a room waiting for two or three other people to begin a meeting. And that is, simply, bad manners.
Best use of time doesn't mean abuse of others' time. It actually means the opposite. I'm often intrigued by stories of businesses where, if a meeting is scheduled to last an hour, it will last the full 60 minutes even if the objective has been achieved after 20 minutes. There we go again - thinking that we're somehow tied to the clock and that it's the clock we have to manage.
No, it is me and my state of mind that I have to manage. And that takes time. But it only takes a little time: five or six minutes in the morning will not just do the trick for the day ahead. It will make you more agile, more mindful, more aware of what needs to be done, when and how... and how best we can use our time and help those around us best use their time too.
Everyone should be a winner.
We're talking about time, how to manage it and make best use of it... and, today, in our Normal Crazy People story, I want to talk about not giving yourself enough time.
Was chatting to a friend last Thursday who was all up in a heap. His wife had just headed off on a long weekend with a few girl friends and he was calling me from home in a state of near panic. "She'll be back Monday and I simply don't have enought time!" he said.
When I asked him what he was talking about, he explained that he'd come up with a list of things he'd get done around the house: the hot water tank needed replumbing; he was going to put down a new solid wood floor in the hall; he needed to trim the hedges (if he didn't get it done in May, it would get out of control!) and he planned to clean out the shed so he could, then, clean out the garage.
"I'm completely stressed out by the amount of work I have to do" - as I keep explaining, we stress ourselves out... but this is ridiculous!