Time…how do you define it? Here are 2 terms referring to TIME.
Chronos or Kairos? What does this mean to you, if anything? Are we in ancient Greece yet? How are these two Time Definitions affecting my productivity?
The difference profoundly affects how we live our lives.
When we think about time in the abstract, or Chronos, there’s not generally a sense of urgency. While this can be helpful in some cases, it can also be a breeding ground for procrastination. Conversely, Kairos embodies time in our lives. Kairos says, “if I want to ‘be successful’ at my job, I need to nail down what means, and take some action as my first step.”
When reading studies by psychologists, there are 2 kinds of regret based on the age of the subject being interviewed. People their 20s regretted poor choices that got them into trouble or caused embarrassment. These range from cheating on exams to romantic interests/failures. As a result, the younger set seeks to avoid risks so that they are in the “safe zone.” Conversely, people in their 70s and 80s regretted not taking MORE chances. Their mantra is “do it while you can.” Perhaps they wanted to switch careers or learn to tap dance, but they did not act. They see the value of acting when the time is ripe.
The lesson in this? You guessed it. We’re talking about the value of goal setting, and more importantly, step-by-step goal ACHIEVING. We all have “Chronos” in our lives. Chronos tells us there will be a time to do this or that. And, he is right. There will be. But Kairos reminds us that if we wait forever, we’ll look back and wonder what happened. We might even find ourselves saying,
Are you saying…I know WHAT gets in my way. I know what I WANT. I know WHY. Now…HOW will I do it?
That’s right, it’s the H in the W+W+W+H = Woo Hoo! Process…Where you can now really fly.
I join again with SUE WEST to provide this podcast in our series…the HOW click HOW no 1 or read on…
So many people want a quick fix; an answer to a “problem” about getting more organized and/or getting more out of their life BEFORE they’ve gone through the process. They want the HOW first….the proverbial cart before the horse.
So much needs to be fast, fast, fast. But as a favorite author, researcher and speaker, Brene Brown tells it well in her book “The Gifts of Imperfection:”
When we skip the hard stuff, it just doesn’t work.
We don’t change. We don’t grow and we don’t move forward without the work.
My work is about the things that get in the way. I’m not about the ‘how to’ because in my experience I’ve never seen any evidence of ‘how to’ working without talking about the things that get in the way.
So, own your story. Tell it. There is freedom, relief and more when we do.
Again, Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
We will be sharing our “best practices” for the HOW over this and subsequent podcasts. Here’s the first one: the time inventory. Some students have referred to this practice as a time diary. To do this, record your time each day. Record it as you are actually working (or playing!) Do not wait until the end of the day, or the next day, and say “what did I do?” You will lose precious minutes and hours. Over a series of days and weeks, you will begin to see patterns. It does not matter if you record it on a piece of paper or electronically; only that you do it consistently and in a timely manner.
Perhaps you intend to get up at 6am, exercise, eat breakfast then get going with your day by 8:30 am. But, time and time again, it’s 9:00 am or later and you have not eaten, have not showered, and you are just catching up with “a few emails” first.
Once you actually begin to record your day you will see that you may wake up at 6, but stay in bed routinely until 6:30. Then you may quickly check facebook and you are not having that first cup of coffee until 7 am. By then you may figure you’d better exercise and when you return it’s 8 am and you want to answer an email quickly. As 9 am approaches you are “fighting fires”, are still in your lycra, have not showered or eaten. This knowledge empowers you to change the pattern.
That’s enough fieldwork and practice for our listeners this time. The first step is always noticing. Seeing where exactly the issues are, because if you don’t diagnose the problem correctly, you’ll try something and it won’t even be the solution to the right problem! So step back and just observe yourself this week.
This is a good start to opening our HOW bucket. We’ll continue with practical strategies to get you started in taking back your time and life in the coming podcasts.
If this topic struck a chord with you, we know you’ll get much more benefit from our Design Your Days workshop. We offer public workshops periodically; check out our facebook page for the latest ones.
Want a Business organization and prioritization tip? Use Ideapaint on your wall.
Use this tip if you consider yourself a “visual thinker.” You might be a designer or artist. Idea paint is not paint at all; rather, it is a sealer that acts as a giant dry-erase board.
If you have ever had the occasion of “too many to-do’s” to the point of overwhelm, Ideapaint is a tool to help de-clutter your brain. And when your brain is de-cluttered, you feel better organized, can prioritize better, focus better, and get more done.
The brain spill. Often, I will have “so many ideas” that they cloud my head. When this happens, I walk over to my ideapaint wall, grab a marker, and start writing. Soon, I will begin drawing arrows and charts and graphs and numbered priorities. The act of standing, drawing, and writing frees up my brain.
Ideas and concepts redefined on your wall
Use color to help prioritize on the wall. Once you “spill out” your to-do’s, you can start to see them more clearly. It becomes obvious which ones need to be done first, and which can wait. You can use red for your top 3, blue for everything else, for example. Things that are a lower priority can be grey.
You can use this to organize your projects. My graphic designer used idea paint on his wall to organize his clients into “website clients,” “newsletter clients”, “social media clients”, etc. so that he could run through the list and remember various tasks and deadlines he had for each client. Yes, he could have done this via spreadsheet or through another method, but, having this on the wall was an easier way for him to “see” everything all at once and respond to his “visual thinking” tendencies.
Have you ever thought WHY you want to save time? I mean, REALLY ask WHY? To clarify, I’m not referring to “so I can fit more in” or “so I can be more efficient.” Are those good reasons? Well, they are not bad. But, when it comes to lasting change; truly enduring habits…your WHY needs to be pretty strong. In fact, a stronger and the deeper “why” correlates directly into your likelihood of success when looking to change habits.
To illustrate, Sue West and I have created a Podcast- Why Oh Why? We will show you two examples of a Shallower Why and a Deeper Why to get your “head in the game.”
Sue: Of course! When we walk you through our W+W+W+H = Woo Hoo! Process, we start with WHAT gets in your way.
Then…we turn to WHY. This will often trip people up, because it’s often *not evident* what the why REALLY is. We THINK we know, but….then, we go a little deeper. The deeper we go, the more we contemplate and become totally honest with ourselves, the stronger our why. The stronger our why is, the higher our chance at truly Re-designing our days for Lasting Change.
Whew! What the heck does all that MEAN, anyway? Let’s look at a couple of examples, the shallow why and then a deeper why version.
Carol: So, back to our WHY conversation.
Sue and I will each provide an example of a Shallower Why and a Deeper Why. See if you can hear the Difference.
First, an Example of a more shallow why:
I want to redesign my day to become more productive, and sell more. When I sell more, I earn more. When I earn more, I will enjoy more business success and therefore be happier.
Now, and Example of a Deeper Why:
The money I earn allows me to fulfill my purpose in life. My purpose and passion is to live each day spreading light and love to those around me. I am uniquely skilled and gifted as a kitchen designer. I create beautiful and practical living spaces. But it’s more than that…I enhance people’s lives in the process. When a person lives in an environment that suits their needs and desires, he or she experiences peace and joy. A joyful, peaceful person thinks clearly. That person experiences inner calm and is better able to absorb the chaos life throws their way. That person may think “out of the box” and choose to turn a potential pitfall into an opportunity.
Therefore, I want to redesign my day to allow myself to serve my customers at my highest and best. When I do that, I will do my best work and it will improve not only MY life but the life of those I serve.
Do you hear the difference?
Why do you want to save time?
Sue:
So my example of the “first level” of WHY:
My client I’ll call Jennifer wanted support around time management to get more done at work, to deal with interruptions more effectively and some other frustrations around her productivity. She has AD/HD, Lyme disease and a few other issues.
And my same client, when we coached around what this was really about – the deeper or second level of WHY:
Her life feels too complicated, for the first time ever. Her friends have been saying for years she has too much on her plate, but she did not want to acknowledge what turns out to be quite true.
At mid-life she wants more time with her husband who is about to retire.
She wants to create more time to be with her daughter and grandchildren.
She has a very strong value and strength in traditions of family – our roots – and the desire to honor this, plus create future history with where she is today.
She’s a philanthropist with her “time and treasures,” as well them. She wants to make the world a better place because of all she is grateful for.
So the BIG question is “so what” or “why” … as you answer your WHY question, keep asking the “so what” or “why” question. Keep going until you hear the deeper ‘why’.
Carol:
In summary, although both the more shallow and the more deep why’s are both VALID, the deeper you go, the more likely you are to sticking to your new plan. When the going gets rough, it’s easier to remind yourself of a point that truly resonates with you- on a deep level.
Sue: If these struck a chord with you, we know you’ll get much more benefit from our Design Your Days workshop. Our next public workshop is coming right up- on Tuesday March 18 at 9 am at the Academy of Design and Decorating in Peterborough, NH. Register HERE.Early bird discounts are available before February 21 on a space available basis. Or you can check our FB page, Design Your Days, which will point you in the right direction.
In the next podcast we will move to the WANT question. What do you want more of, or less of? Be sure to listen and see how to get both of these! We will continue to move through the Design Your Days process. At the end of about 12 podcasts, you will look back and find that we’ve provided an excellent overview of our process.
CAROL:
If you cannot attend our March session, we offer the Design Your Daysworkshop to YOUR group of business owners, so please contact one of us for more information and to get us on your schedule.
In the U.S., most of us will enjoy an extended weekend very soon. Some of us may already be away for the week- I know 2 people in that category personally. The question I have is….what will you do or not do, and how will you feel about those decisions?
Too much free time can spell DANGER.
Today I helped a client Design Her Long Weekend. When you have too much “unplanned time,” do you feel that it’s “wasted”? Do you “not know where the time does? Do you feel like it’s a waste- so you tend to fill up your time with “productive” ventures instead? This is common and was the case with my client.
My client and I focused on a strategy that I’d like to share: Majoring and Minoring. Think of your college undergraduate years. Perhaps you had a major and a minor. By default, more time and energy is expended on your major, right? In work and in life, we mostly find ourselves with more to-do’s than will fit in our bucket. So, run yourself through your weekend. What would you WANT it to look like…if you had it YOUR way? That’s right…be selfish. Start there. Then, add in the non-negotiables. Really look- are they truly “givens” or is there any wiggle-room if they don’t fit your version of the ideal long weekend?
Set your intention, make some plans that are needed, and accept the outcome. You will find that the power of intention is, in fact, very powerful.
Next week is December? Forget the goals-I am writing off the year- see you in January!
Thanksgiving can be a quiet time, if you dare. When others are watching football or taking that after dinner nap, you can take advantage of that quiet time to focus on yourself and your personal and professional goals. Strategic and creative thinking requires downtime.
Some questions to ask yourself are:
How “big” do your want your December Holidays to be?
How will you address your “important, but not urgent” tasks in December, so that you hit the ground running on January 2?
Two strategies to achieve the goals you identify:
Honor your desired outcome with the “pause and reflect” method. How? When a request comes in, decide that you will “pause and reflect” rather that furnishing an immediate answer. This pause allows more holistic and strategic thinking than may otherwise happen.
Use the “if/then” habit: Help implement the strategy above by bringing it directly into your life. For example, IF my employer asks me to work late, THEN I will check with my spouse before agreeing to it.
A little Thanksgiving Planning can go a long way to enjoying the holidays and jumpstarting January. Be well, enjoy every bite, and above all – express gratitude.
Fall Scenery? Your children? The promise of an exotic trip?
Or is it…
…the vision of becoming a leader in your field?
find your vision, pursue your goal, use your motivation
The opportunity to give more and better in your own unique way…to push the limit of who you think you are to who you could be? Is it the opportunity to create something that nobody has created?
What it is NOT:
None of the above are “right” or “wrong.” But, did you notice what was *not* in the list? That’s right…”more money.” Compensation is what many people claim they seek, but an MIT study shows that actually…there is much more to “real” motivation and innovation. Stay tuned until the end of this blog article.
MOTIVATOR 1:
If you answered “fall scenery”:
focused and organized people motivate themselves and others
Science reinforces that the beautiful fall images we’ve been seeking on the EpS facebook page TRIGGER POSITIVE EMOTIONS that actually HELP US FOCUS.
And what happens with focused people? You guessed it…they are more Productive.
MOTIVATOR 2:
If you answered “the promise of an exotic trip”:
You might be someone who gets excited by new challenges. Many of my clients are in this category. Stimulation and new-ness are key. Factor 3 in this Psychology Today article supports this motivator: read here.
MOTIVATOR 3:
When we operate beyond the “make more widgets, get more compensation” mentality, our motivation actually suffers from the promise of more compensation, if a more comprehensive set of motivators is absent, according to a recent MIT study.
This video is worth watching. It highlights that 3 factors, autonomy, mastery, and purpose, weigh in heavily as the prime motivators for those seeking motivation through cognitive skill. What this means is that when our thinking moves BEYOND a certain, carrot-and-stick level, which is a mechanical skill level, we DO in fact, need “more.” Have you heard, “I have the money but I still feel empty inside?”
Where is your blue sky? How will you make a difference?
Watch this video. Start thinking….what do I want to master? What’s my purpose? How much more autonomy would I want to take on my current or future work situation?
Autonomy, mastery, purpose…now we’re talking Motivation. Be great.
