by Tom Evans | Jan 26, 2015 | Timing
In the UK at least, as the 31st of January looms quite a few hearts pounding as personal tax returns have to be submitted. It’s thought that nearly 10 million people in the UK must submit a self-assessment return each year. Filing a return late and you’ll get an immediate £100 fine.
Just imagine though if you could learn to get more done in less time and that you could generate enough hours in the day.
Well bizarre as it may seem, our left and right brains experience time in different ways. It’s an urban myth that the left brain is logical and the right is creative. The picture that is now emerging is that our left brains sit inside space and time and our right brains experience everywhere and ‘everywhen’ else.
If you have to make the numbers add up by the end of the week, take a few minutes out just now to take your left and right brains on a workout. Follow these simple numerical exercises and, at the end of this Timeful Task, you will have both sides of the brain working in harmony.
Your relationship with numbers will change slightly, especially with the number 9. You will also find your experience of the passage of time will subtly alter and remember of course that it’s the thought that ‘counts’.
This short video is a sample from over 6 hours of mind opening multimedia resources in the Living Timefully self study program.
To find out more about how we can change our perception of the passage of time and how we can create as much time as we need, start Living Timefully
p.s. the best time to start Living Timefully is yesterday, the second best time is today
by Tom Evans | Jan 19, 2015 | Illuminating
It’s theorised that the so-called “Blue Monday” is the most depressing day of the year. It was originally part of a marketing campaign by Sky Travel to get people to buy a holiday, so has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It even has a dubious formula that factors in the arrival of a credit card bill post the Christmas spend.
For more read here …
Whether it’s science, pseudoscience or just a marketing gimmick, Mondays can tend to be a bit depressing as people slog back into work. So for Blue Monday, and any Monday, here’s seven antidotes to turn that ‘formula’ on it’s head.
Antidote 1: Cut yourself some slack
Put off something you think has to be done today until tomorrow, or next week. You might find a better way to do it or that it didn’t even need to be done at all.
Antidote 2: Perform a random act of kindness
Do something random that takes you no more than a minute but that really makes someone’s day, or week. Watch how random acts of kindness come back doubled, and from another source, when you’re least expecting them.
Antidote 3: Make someone smile
Smile at a stranger or let someone out in traffic. Or send send someone something online to make them laugh.
Antidote 4: Forgive someone
Let the anger go concerning someone who crossed you. The older the grudge, the better it is to let go of. You can even forgive yourself for something you regretted doing too.
Antidote 5: Give yourself a treat
Spoil yourself and buy something to cheer yourself up. Or just get away from your desk and go for a walk at lunchtime
Antidote 6: Get back in touch with an old friend
Re-make that connection with someone you’ve been meaning to call for ages. You might even inspire them to do the same to someone else. What goes around comes around.
Antidote 7: Give yourself some of Me Time
Listen to my Be Calm meditation for just 10 minutes and let the blues fall away
by Tom Evans | Jan 9, 2015 | Timing
Would you like to get more done in 2015 than 2014? Here’s how timefulness is becoming the new mindfulness and slowing down is the new speeding up.
Key 1: Meditate daily
It is thought that every minute spent in the meditative state, gets added back to our lives. We either save any time spent by having a better day or add a minute to our longevity. When we learn to enter the meditative state with our eyes open, time bends and stretches so we get more done in less time.
Key 2: Make a date with your Creative Self
Each and every day, even if it’s just for 10 minutes, a date with our Creative Self is like a supercharge for the mind, body and soul. We might write ‘morning pages’, pick up a guitar and strum or visit an art gallery. Just going for a walk in the park and imagining the most amazing future counts too.
Key 3: Trust your gut & follow your heart
Our head ‘shouts’ quite loudly. So much so that sometimes the signals from our gut and heart get overlooked and overruled. So, for each decision you have to make, ask your gut for a Yes or a No. Next ask your heart if it is cold, luke warm or boiling hot about it. If your gut and heart give you the green light, proceed with gusto. If not, ask them what would have to change in order to get their blessing.
Key 4: Create a To Love List
It’s said when we love the work we do, we never work as such again. So ditch your To Do list and start a To Love list. At the top, put the thungs you love to do first and tackle your list from the top down. If there are things on there you don’t like doing so much, either outsource them or be creative about how you could love doing them.
Key 5: Sync with natural time
Our modern calendar has caused us to fall out of sync with natural time. Our creativity waxes and wanes wity the seasons, the phase of the Moon and the hours in each day. When we discover our naturally creative times, we go with the flow and stop pushing water up a temporal hill.
Key 6: Be thankful
At the end of each day, either in a journal or just in your head as it hits the pillow, reflect on the highlights of your day. As you drop off into slumber, say one last ‘Thank You’ for the day to your bed for giving you a good night’s sleep.
Key 7: Perform a Random Act of Kindness
When we get into the habit of performing a random of kindness to a stranger each day, something rather magical happens. Other people, who weren’t aware of our act or the recipient of our act, perform similar kindnesses to us. The ratio of kindnesses is more than two bestowed back on us for everyone we give out. The result is massive time saving.
Visit www.livingtimefully.com to start creating as much time as you need
by Tom Evans | Dec 31, 2014 | Expanding
Before I was introduced to meditation, I thought it was a complete waste of time and that there was no way my mind could go blank.
These days, I know I have a worse day without it and I find myself teaching it to others, both through online MP3’s and in mindfulness sessions.
This short video explains what I learned.
by Tom Evans | Nov 11, 2014 | Expanding
I am really honoured and excited to be a member of a new group of authors with a ‘publisher’ called Avanoo who has introduced quite a revolutionary model.
For starters, the ‘publisher’ doesn’t create books but ‘Noos’ which are 2 to 3 minute audiovisual delights to open minds and expand horizons …
‘Readers’ don’t take in these gems of wisdom in one sitting, they are delivered by email daily so they can be savoured over the course of 30 days.
I’m also doubly honoured to be interviewing each and every fellow author for the Zone Show Channel over the coming months!
To find out what it’s all about, listen to this interview with the co-founder and president of Avanoo, Daniel Jacobs …
And in this podcast, Daniel turns the tables on me and explores where my temporal Noos came from …
I this podcast, Annabelle Drumm – the Kite Girl – explains how our thoughts really are things and why we should be mindful of what we are thinking …
Tom Dowd explains why being made redundant and finding a new job can be a breath of fresh air …
Helene Segura on making time to save time …
Sarah McCrum explains and explores new ways to heal (or is that old ways?) …
Candy Whirley on why it takes four, not two, to tango …
Mary O’Donohue on the importance of saying thank you and meaning it …
Rita Emmett on breaking the procrastination habit …
Nancy Bartlett on turning obstacles into opportunity …
by Tom Evans | Nov 10, 2014 | Timing
It said that every time we switch away from a task, it takes around five minutes to tune fully back into what we were working on. This means if we get just 12 interruptions a day, we lose around an hour in productivity.
Obviously, we can relatively easily remove self-inflicted diversions by switching off email, cell phones and social media. There’s an added bonus to be gained here. When we read less emails and interact less on social media, we create less noise in other peoples’ worlds and in turn they create less in ours.
I am currently having a self-imposed week of reduced social media involvement and I am amazed at how much more time I have to get more done. I also feel less anxious about checking in to see who’s talking about what – and me! I am just checking emails three times a day and only replying to everything in one session. It took a while to wean myself away from constantly checking in but now I am on the ‘other side’, it is strangely calming.
Even if you manage to tame the inner desire to divert your attention from the task at hand, external influences can darken your door just when you are fully engrossed and immersed in the creative zone. This is especially true in open plan office environments where conversations and other peoples’ phone calls can so easily disrupt our concentration.
Quite possibly, the worst type of interruption is that gentle knock on the door and a voice saying, “Have you got a minute?”
We never say, “If I had a spare minute, I would have sought you out and offered it to you.”
Instead we acquiesce and invariably that single requested minute morphs into several.
To prevent this kind of unrequited attention sapper, we can set up an interruption barrier. Like all strong defenses, it is best if it has several layers to stop the most ardent of penetrators.
Layer 1 : Physical
The first layer can be physical. When we are working on a creative task that needs our undivided attention, we can either work from home or lock ourselves in an office labelled ’Do Not Disturb’.
Layer 2 : Cultural
The second layer is both cultural and temporal. In smart organisations with intelligent employees, the time and space of others is respected. Simply announce the time and space you like to be interrupt free. A good practice is to designate the first working hour of the morning or after lunch as the time you need your own space. If everybody adopts this practice, nobody is therefore free to interrupt anyone else.
Layer 3 : Mindful
The third layer is slightly esoteric, yet the most potentially the most powerful.
It is postulated, by Carl Jung and other, that all thought permeates through a collective field. So if a person pops into your mind, it is possible that they are thinking about you just at that instant.
The reverse is also true. While you are working on a creative task, if your attention wanders and you think of somebody or other, then they might just think, “Ooh, I wonder if so and so is not busy and might be able to help me on this.”
So it is possibly our thoughts of others that cause them to interrupt us.
Over the years, I have noticed that the phone never rings when I am writing a chapter of a book or a blog. Yet, just a few minutes after a finish, it does. I realised I must have been doing something to stop my thought forms from leaking out.
The clue is this. Every day before I write, I meditate for 10 to 30 minutes. When I start writing, I remain in the meditative state. This means my internal dialogue is silent so I am not radiating any thought forms. The only ’words’ passing through my head are those that are passing through my finger tips typing these words.
This is especially true right now.
To create as much time as you need and get more done, start Living Timefully
