A Synthesis of Time

A Synthesis of Time

SeasonsAs we approach the feast of Christmas, very often another temporal milestone gets missed and that’s the Winter Solstice. Both dates have their significance and their differences.

The 25th December is a man-made date that some people use to either celebrate the birth of Christ and/or catch up with relatives. The Winter Solstice represents an alignment of the Earth relative to the Sun where some have their shortest day and others have their longest.

In our modern world, with central heating and electric light, we have somewhat distanced ourselves from Natural Time, yet it still has its usefulness.

I began to use Natural Time for project management about seven years ago and have discovered my life runs much more smoothly as a result.

At the same time though, without wearing a watch, I always know what time it is and am rarely late for meetings. Our modern calendar has its place, so long as we are mindful not to become enslaved by it.

Moon Phases

Accordingly, exactly on the last New Moon (the 11th of December), the next book in my series on practical applications of mindfulness was published. It’s called Managing Time Mindfully and the synthesis of two calendar systems is just one of the temporal delights it explores.

It’s available worldwide for Amazon Kindle and Kindle Readers and I bent some time so readers in the UK can get the print version (and via Amazon early in 2016).

Big thanks to all those who placed a pre-order, you helped me get it into the Top #100 books on time management. I’d love to get it into the Top #10 so, by way of thanks for all those who get a copy, there’s a free pack of meditations available for all who place an order before the end of the year (which incidentally is another man-made date).

If you’d like to get more done next year than this year, get your copy here …

Managing Time Mindfully

p.s. you would make my day and my aim from the book is that is that it helps you get more done, more easily with yours !

What one reader said about the book …


Related Posts :

Publishing in Tune with the Moon
Quarter 1 : First Tickings
Quarter 2 : Perceptions of Time
Quarter 3 : Managing Time
Quarter 4 : Temporal Alchemy

Publishing in Tune with the Moon

First Tickings

Perceptions of Time

Managing Time

Temporal Alchemy

Creative Scheduling

Creative ZoneWe can be very creative about not being creative. When we schedule time for our creative activities, quite often other more pressing tasks pop up. As a result, our books don’t get written and deadlines move from being comfortable to being tight.

There is a knack to scheduling creatively which involves going with the temporal flow. When we block out creative times wisely, we find we can get more done, more easily.


One of the factors which mitigates against us is the modern calendar. Our modern time systems are brilliant when it comes to allowing us to operate in a sophisticated society. We don’t want all planes to arrive at an airport just when they feel like it. It’s nice to be able to turn up to the theatre and for it to start on time, on the date that we’ve booked.

We should be minded though that seconds, minutes, hours, weeks and months don’t exist in nature, they are man-made. Likewise the names of the days of the week and the division between working week and weekend are arbitrary. Not everyone on the planet has Saturday and Sunday as their weekend, for example.

The varying lengths of the months are made up too. The only real time constants are the day and the year which are of course driven by the rotation of the Earth and its orbit around the Sun. Even these vary quite a bit and our 24 hour days and 365.25 day years are only averages. The tugging and pulling between the planets in our Solar System make everything a bit fluid and variable.

When we superimpose false deadlines inside our time system, it is often hard to be at our creative peak just at the perfect time. Of course, we can use tools and practices like meditation and mind mapping to help us out of our creative log jams. The best way by far to be superbly creative though is for us to schedule our creative tasks around the times where we are most productive.

Clock

Firstly, we can easily identify when we are most creative in the day. I am a morning person and I always write between 8am and 11am, as I am doing with this article right now. I also meditate before each writing session but that’s just a practice I use to tune into my Creative Muse.
Clock

The second trick I use is to give the days of my week my own names on which I focus on different aspects of my business. You can have some creative fun making up your own.

See the blog, My Magical Week for more on this and to see how others have done it too !!

Once we get our days sorted, we can superimpose two other overarching slants on our creative output.
Clock

Moon PhasesThe first is to tune into the phase of the Moon. I have noticed I get much better results if I plan between the New Moon and Full Moon and act and deliver between Full Moon and New Moon. I also believe that it doesn’t matter if the Moon affects our creativity or not but that the oscillation between planning and action gives us space to breathe, reflect and measure how we are doing. There are more subtle divisions to use with the quarter phases of the Moon but this simple method is very workable.

By the way, if you don’t know what the Moon phase is, there are loads of free smartphone apps these days. I’ve also found that inspirational talks and workshops work well when timed on or around the Full Moon. New concepts and product launches on the New Moon seem to swimmingly too.
Clock
SeasonsThe second aspect to bear in mind is which season we are in. Only after writing my first three books did I notice that I had created them all in Spring. So now I plan and research my next book in Autumn and Winter and start writing it in earnest on the Spring Equinox.

Now if all of this sounds a bit wacky and you think I have lost my marbles, let me add some caveats. Firstly, each of us is free to tune into our own creative cycles. There is no creed or religion to follow here. Secondly, any system like this works exactly because it gives us a framework to follow. Our outputs are the only measure of its efficacy.

We should never limit our creativity either. My iPad is always to hand to capture words, speech, art, maps of my mind and images or even video, should the Muse call.

TMMIssue29_Cover_444

To find out more about how I schedule my day, check out my interview and loads more fabulous articles in the latest multimedia edition of Time Management Magazine.

Subscribe today for iPad or Android here …

7 Keys to Living Timefully

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

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

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

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.


Living Timefully

Visit www.livingtimefully.com to start creating as much time as you need