Seven Time Management Hacks

Stretching TimeMost time management systems quite rightly focus on goal setting, intelligent prioritisation and improved interruption management. When we see time as a finite resource, with a forward arrow, this is a pretty good strategy. It is however a left-brained, orthogonal approach.

Time however is both malleable and stretchable and when we see it as something that can be manipulated to our advantage, there is a whole gamut of techniques we can use to get more done in less time. Our perception of time is a function of our consciousness and modulated by the speed of our breath.

Quite simply, when we change our mind, we change our time.

Hack One : Ending Procrastination

It is amazing how creative we can be at not getting on with the task in hand. When it comes to doing what we really should be doing, or what we would love to do, we invent excuses galore to not-do-it. In all cases, this sort of behaviour is a symptom of a deeper malaise. When we procrastinate creatively, we are masking and hiding an underlying fear. It might be a fear of failure or even a fear of success. It could be fear of the unknown or a fear of being ridiculed. Often, it has roots back to an earlier event where the wheels came off our bus.

Remove the fear and the creative spark gets redirected where it is needed.
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Hack Two : Getting in Sync

Our man-made calendar and the 9 to 5 working week, when combined with 24×7 electric lighting, has resulted in us losing connection with natural cycles. Morning people just can’t produce as well in the afternoons. Each month, the Moon orbits our planet and has a massive impact on the creative cycle. Spring-time is the perfect time to leap into action and autumn is the perfect time to harvest.

When we go with the temporal flow, we stop pushing time uphill.
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Hack Three : Kronos and Kairos

The Greeks knew this but only recently neuroscientists have re-discovered that we have two minds of time. For most people, the left brain sits inside space and time; simultaneously the right brain lives everywhere and ’everywhen’ else. Energise both hemispheres by going for a good walk, or cross crawling, or give them a task they work on together and time takes on an ethereal quality.

It is just like magic because all magic tricks are only magic until we know how the trick is done.
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Hack Four : It’s Madness not to Meditate

It is thought that every minute spent in the deep meditative state extends our longevity by an equal amount of time, or more. Not only that but our well-being and vitality improves so we lose less time being ill, or just under the weather and under-performing. What’s more, when we take 10-20 minutes of “me-time” out every day, we get it back in spades with the serendipities and chance encounters we experience by being more tuned in.

Perfect opportunities come in when we least expect them too – and always just-in-time.
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Hack Five : The Intention Field

Thoughts don’t become things, they are things. Every thought we have generates an intention field around it that sends ripples out through the collective mind that bounce back at us. Simply by engaging both hemispheres on a task, we send out a signal that we are busy. You will find the phone doesn’t ring when you are really zoned on a task in this manner.

The intention field gets generated automatically and requires no energy but a particular kind of breath – and we all have to breathe anyway.
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Hack Six : Whole Mind Thinking

Our consciousness is sited all over our body and only concentrated around major nerve ganglia. As we have billions of neurons in our brains, for most people upon awakening, our inner dialogue naturally shouts the loudest. As a result, we assume our head is where all the ‘action’ is when it comes to matters of consciousness and awareness. This has the tendency of masking signals from other important nerve centres, specifically those in our heart and our gut. From an evolutionary perspective, these mind centres are older and in some ways wiser. They also operate a few seconds ahead of our conscious awareness and they are always, always right.

When we get our head, heart and gut in alignment, we become unstoppable.
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Hack Seven : Letting Stuff Arrive

Rather than thinking we have to turn up, when you apply the six hacks above all together, all we have to do is to allow things to arrive. Life stops being a chore and we begin to enjoy a charmed existence.

Also what turns up is better than our wildest dreams and always perfectly timed.

Create as much time as you need and get more done

Mindfulness-based Time Management

The Inspirational Breath

Many people ask me how they can be more inspirational or can experience more inspirations. The answer is perhaps surprising as it doesn’t lie being more intelligent or studying. It involves doing something we all do every day, without thinking about it, and that’s to breathe.

Of course, this is quite handy as we all breathe anyway to stay alive.

What brought me to this realisation was some research I did around the actual word, inspiration. Our words and our sayings give away much about their true semantics.

If you look up the word inspiration say at www.dictionary.com, you will see the following definitions:

1. an inspiring or animating action or influence:
2. something inspired, as an idea.
3. a result of inspired activity.
4. a thing or person that inspires.
5. Theology.
a. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
b. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
6. the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.

The first four you will probably have expected but it’s maybe a surprise to see that there is a theological connotation for inspiration. The last definition is one that most people don’t think of even though it’s perhaps fairly obvious. Inspiration is of course one half of the respiration process.

Further insight comes from looking at its etymology, or root meaning. You find that the word ‘inspiration’ is comprised of the word “in” and the Latin “spirare”which meant “to breathe”.

Now I was aware we speak on the out breath. Could it be that ideas come to us on the in breath? I did some more research and found that Eastern mystical practices such as Taoism use breathing exercises in meditation to both balance Yin and Yang energies and encourage the connection to the divine.

Whole Brain Breathing

Now our neurons don’t store any oxygen but they need oxygen in order to function. So guess what? If you increase your depth of breathing by really using your diaphragm, your brain gets more oxygenated.

Now you don’t have to do this all day but it’s a great thing to do as you get up and when you need an shot of inspiration – for example, if you flag in the afternoon.

Here’s the sequence to follow:

1. Place your hands on your belly so your fingers tips on your left and right hands are touching

2. Now breath in so your belly really expands and your finger tips separate

3. Next breath out fully with your out breath being about 3 to 4 times longer than the in breath – and then your fingers touch again

4. Repeat this nine times

5. If you want to get a bit fancy, on one breath, imagine the oxygen filling your left brain and on the next, the right – alternate this sequence and see if you can work up to 18 breaths in this way

If you would you like to learn more about these techniques, make sure you get a copy of Tom’s new book to find out where ideas really come from and how you can make sure yours actually happen …

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

Related blogs:

Getting in the Zone

Whole Brain Thinking

Cross Crawling

Mapping your Mind

Food for Thought

Which side are you on?

Getting in the Zone

Over the course of a day, you breathe through different nostrils, The left nostril oxygenates the right brain and the right nostril the left.

Neurons don’t store oxygen, they need to be fed it.

This visualisation is a great way to prepare for any creative project.

It both energises and balances both sides of the brain.

Once you learn the sequence, you can do all or part of it at any time to give you an extra boost throughout the day.

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS WHILE DRIVING, FLYING A JUMBO JET OR OPERATING MACHINERY


Getting in The Zone

Before you listen to this visualisation, stare at the infinity image for 30 seconds so it is impressed on your Mind’s Eye.

If you have an iPhone, iPad or MP3 player, you can download it here …

If you would you like to learn more about these techniques, make sure you get a copy of Tom’s new book to find out where ideas really come from and how you can make sure yours actually happen …

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments

Related blogs:

Whole Brain Thinking

The Inspirational Breath

Cross Crawling

Mapping your Mind

Food for Thought

Which side are you on?