Where Does The Time Go? Controlling Emotions and Thoughts for Time Management

Statistically, more people lose time through wastage than they do in doing the wrong things. Still, it is important to know where the time goes.

1. Emotions. Emotions in general, particularly negative emotions such as anger, fear and jealousy, take your attention away from the task at hand. If your mind is not on what you are doing, you will take longer to do it. Anger relates to things past and fear to things yet to come. You cannot do anything about the past except come to terms with it. And, as FDR said, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. Why worry about things you have no control over? Control your emotions and get more done quickly.
2. Indecision. Results are produced by actions, and decisions trigger actions. Sometimes it is the fear of making the wrong decision that causes the indecision. Other times, one may hide behind indecision as the reason not to take action. Realize that unless you take a decision and act in accordance, you cannot get rid of the monkey on your back. Effective people are quick to take decisions because they know that it does not get easier the more you put off deciding/
3. Lack of predetermined response to possible situations. Do you have a Plan B? When things do not go as planned, if you don’t have a backup plan, you react. On the other hand, if you have considered possible scenarios and thought about what you would do if they occurred, you don’t react but respond.
4. Insufficient separation of thought and action. You cannot think and act at the same time. The thinking gets in the way of the doing and the doing gets in the way of the thinking. The best approach is to think first and act afterward.
5. Not thinking things through. Every solution breeds problems. Actions have consequences, and the consequences of actions must be identified and evaluated before deciding upon the course of actions.
6. Parking on a task (Tinkering). Some people cannot leave a completed task well alone. They re-open the task to tweak it. And tweak it. And tweak it. Enough, already!
7. Thought inertia. After a heated discussion, have you found yourself thinking to yourself, “I should have said this” or “I wish I had said that?” Your mind is lingering over the last task even as you move on to the next task. This inertia is due to the emotion that went into the task – the more you get attached to your task, the greater the inertia. When a task is done, push it completely out of your mind and move on to the next task.
8. Do-overs. When you do a task wrong the first time and get to work on it again, time is a-wasting!
9. Unused wait time. Waiting is a fact of life – queues, doctors’ offices, delayed meetings and appointments, traffic, commute, etc. There are things we could be doing in this time. At the least, there may be some reading to catch up with. At the most, work that lives in the “pending” column could be put paid to.
10. Poor recovery from interruptions. Much as we would like to avoid being interrupted while focusing upon a task, we cannot ignore all calls on our time. Interruption is a choice.

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What if Time Management Gurus Met Across Time?

Many years ago, I read a play about a bookworm who dreamt about the characters in the books he read. In this play, Dr. Faustus meets Mrs. Malaprop, Sherlock Holmes meets Long John Silver, and they all converse. As a time management coach, naturally my thoughts gravitate towards time management personages, and over the past couple of days, I have been imagining and putting together a conversation connecting the great quotes I have heard about time and time management. What if Marcus Aurelius meets Benjamin Franklin and others, and their thoughts on time are strung together as a coherent conversation? Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away, but what if these mighty thinkers co-existed?

WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES: A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON: I’d trade all of my tomorrows/for a single yesterday.

MARCUS AURELIUS: Remember that man’s life lies all within this present, as ‘t were but a hair’s-breadth of time; as for the rest, the past is gone, the future yet unseen.

OMAR KHAYYAM: The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it

PETER DRUCKER: The future is not going to be made tomorrow; it is being made today, and largely by the decisions and actions taken with respect to the tasks of today.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for time is the stuff life is made of.

PETER DRUCKER: Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.

W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM: I don’t think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present.

PETER DRUCKER: The best way to predict the future is to create it.

Emotion and Time Management

I met a group of friends for breakfast today, and the talk drifted to “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. What is the value of “Now” in the context of time management?

Marcus Aurelius said, “Man’s life is just this present, as ’twere a hair’s breadth of time. As for the rest, the past is gone and the future yet unseen.” There is another saying (author unknown) that goes, “The past is history, the future is a mystery. This moment is a gift, that is why it is called the present.”

Anger is a past oriented emotion and fear is a future oriented emotion. Rarely is one angry about things that have not yet occurred or fearful about events that have occurred. By shutting out fear, anger and other negative emotions, one can focus on the present. This allows one to focus and complete tasks efficiently and accurately.

Time can be managed best when negative emotions are in check.

Happiness and bliss are in the present.