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An idea on time management from a great life coach for personal development growth:
Can You Manage Time?
BY LEA BRANDENBURG
Reprinted with permission
This successful life coach says that time management doesn't exist. All you can do is manage yourself and how you choose to use time.
Recently time management has been a recurring topic in my coaching sessions with clients. How can I make the time to finish all the items on my "to do" list? How do I use time more effectively so I can juggle work, family and leisure activities with less stress? How do I make time in my life to do the things I really want to do? How can I start a new business or work as an artist when I work a full-time job? How can I leave work at 5pm when there is just so much more work to do?
These are all really good questions. But here's a secret. You can't manage time. You can't make it go faster or slower. You can't make up for lost time. You can't make time move forward or backward. Time management doesn't exist. What you can do is manage yourself and how you choose to use time.
Each of us is given 24 hours a day. No more, no less. Some people don't get 26 hours and some of us only 20. We all get 24 hours a day, 168 hours a week and 52 weeks a year. I guess if you took a plane and leaped from time zone to time zone, you might be able to hustle up a few more hours or even a day. But, is that really how you want to spend your life? Pushing yourself to fit a few more things into the time you have on any given day?
So, the question isn't: can you manage time? The real question is - what do you want to focus on? And how does what you focus on fit into the larger picture that is your life? If spending time with your family and loved ones is a priority, why are you spending 11 hours a day working? If starting a new business is a heart's desire, why do you keep finding reasons to not take action on your dream? Do the actions you take on a daily basis move you forward in the direction you want your life to move? Or do your actions move you away from your priorities?
In case you've lost track of your priorities and the things that you value in your life, try this experiment. For one day, try doing exactly what you want, when you want. Take off your watch, cover up the clocks in your home and pay no attention to time. Pretend you are on vacation. Ever notice that time seems more expansive on vacation? The point of this exercise is to rediscover your internal rhythms, to see what you gravitate towards and release you from struggling with time. I don't know that this exercise will make you healthy, wealthy or wise, but it will reacquaint you with what gives you joy in the now.
The only time we truly have is now. And as you explore your relationship with time and how you choose to use your time, I'd like to remind you of the times that your "now" is so exquisite that time actually disappears. Remember those times you get lost in a really good book, or are watching a sunset, or watching a child at play, or the day you first fell in love? Wouldn't you like more those special times - when time stands still? Take the time to reacquaint yourself with your priorities and values and you'll find you'll have more clarity when it comes to choosing how you want to spend your time.
© Copyright 2002, Lea Brandenburg
Lea Brandenburg is president of Creating Strategies in New York, NY, and has been coaching an international group of clients and businesses since 1997. Her areas of expertise and passion are interpersonal and business communication, intuitive intelligence and creativity. She is a graduate of Coach U, the coaching industry's premiere and oldest training program, a member of the International Coach Federation, which is an association dedicated to preserving the integrity and ethics of the coaching profession, and a Founding Member of Coachville, the first on line coaching training company and portal. You can contact her at lea@creatingstrategies.com. |
