Mindfulness-based Time Management

Overview of Week 6

• A Brief History of Time
• Meditation : Creating an Interruption Barrier
• Timeful Task : Managing Your Days
• Timeful Task : Managing Your Weeks
• Timeful Task : Managing Your Moonths
• Timeful Task : Managing Your Years
• Meditation : The Earth Clock

Take your time over the Timeful Tasks this week, perhaps taking in one a day.

Become mindful this week that the dates in the calendar are artificial and can be somewhat constraining as a result. We don’t really give a second thought (pun intended) to our 24 hour clock, our 60 second minutes and our 60 minute hours.

As you will see in this short video, somewhat ironically it is what the Sumerians did with their hands that gave us the ‘hands’ on our watches.

Meditation : Creating an Interruption Barrier

The practice of meditation each morning sets us up for a productive day. The real key to generating as much time as we need lies in staying in the meditative state as long as possible during the day.

This short and simple routine can be done any time before embarking on a creative task. When we quieten our internal thoughts, it has the effect of creating an ‘interruption barrier’.

It is worth listening a few times and then practice entering this state under your own steam.

Timeful Task : Mindful Days

If we fail to plan our days, it is all too easy for our days to control us.

Watch this short video and make a note in your journal of the following:

• When are you most creative?
• What projects would you love to do, if only you had the time?
• When would you like to start and finish these projects?

Timeful Task : Mindful Weeks

Again watch this short video below and make a note in your journal of seven ways you will engage with each different day of the week going forward.

Here’s my current magical week, by way of example:

Mends Day : each Monday I have reserved three healing slots for clients between 11am and 6pm. I will also be mindful to mend and repair things that need attention in my life and world.

Tools Day : Tuesday is the day I spend all day building new tools for personal transformation and development.

Weeds Day : Wednesday is another client day. Between 11am and 3pm, I have scheduled 3 client unblocking sessions to weed out those internal gremlins that stop us being magnificent.

Surge Day : Thursday is my day to spend on marketing. I write a blog or interview a guest for my podcast and have a bit of fun on social media.

Free Day : Friday is my treat. It’s the day I spend writing my fiction. Note that I write and create most days but this is where my creative spirit is set free to explore, dream and expand.

Sitter Day : Saturday and Sunday are somewhat transposable but this is generally the time to sit around, relax and socialise.

Sunny Day : again this might happen on Sitter Day but being outside gardening or walking the dogs is a big component of the week. To dogs of course, every day is a sunny day, a sitter day and a free day. Perhaps they know something that we don’t.

Timeful Task : Mindful Moonths

After watching the video below, find out where you are right now in relation to the Moon Plase.

Then write down in your journal 13 things you would like to get done in a year from right now.

Then, in the order you would like to do them, find out the dates for the next 13 New Moons, and add the commencement of each task to your diary on the relevant date.

There are many online Moon Phase calendars, this one shows both Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Timeful Task : Mindful Years

So in each year, we all travel over 1/2 billion miles together on Spaceship Earth. What differentiates those who don’t stand still, or go backwards, from those who realise their dreams is a plan.

Depending on when you are watching the video below, make a note of the following:

• Autumn : what have you just harvested from this year just passed?
• Winter : what ingenious plans do you have for the year ahead?
• Spring : what actions will you take to leap forward?
• Summer : how do you plan to enjoy the fruits of your labour?

Meditation : The Earth Clock

As each day morphs into night time and the next day follows, for the most time, we forget we are on a planet rotating once every 24 of what we call hours. We forget too about a Moon that rotates around our planet 13 times every year. We also forget that very year, we come back to approximately the same place in orbit around the Sun.

In one of these years, the Earth has travelled over half a billion miles around the Sun. At the same time, the Sun, with all its planets is moving at 450,000 miles an hour around the centre of our galaxy. While everything is in such constant motion, it is amazing how many people stand still, or go backwards.

This visualisation brings some context to all of this and is best listened to lying down, either on a bed or a sofa. Have your head propped up on a pillow and you might like a cushion, or pillow under your knees.

p.s. this intentionally short visualisation maybe a little technical for those who are not familiar with the workings of the solar system. You may find this video helps with the nuances of this meditation.

See if you can count the number of moon orbits.

Key Learnings

• Our man-made calendars have caused us to forget about natural time
• Integrate creative time into each and every day
• Be mindful of what you do on each day of the week
• Tune into the Moon in order to go with the temporal flow
• Have a plan for each of the seasons