Changing how you see time can give you more

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Time saver: Latitudes Grant Hamel.

Grant Hamel

How do you manage your time? When you say yes to one activity and no to another, you’re actually voting with your time.

We have 24 hours in a day, so time seems limited. But that’s 86 400 seconds – loads of valuable time.

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) helps us to look at how we think, communicate and behave and then creates models to assist us in achieving our goals. Effective time management is one of them.

Timeline management helps us to understand “in-time” and “through-time” concepts. In the Western world, we tend to interact with time sequentially.

We visualise the past, present and future from left to right. NLP identifies two main states of being. Being “in-time” is when you are fully absorbed and enjoying a chosen activity. However, you are usually less aware of time passing and could be sidetracked.

Through-time, on the other hand, is process oriented, because you can disassociate yourself from the experience at hand and see it stretching ahead of you. Being conscious of time and the interaction of events, you can plan and multitask. A potential pitfall, however, is spending too much time planning.

Timeline management helps us to understand when we need to engage tasks sequentially or concurrently rather than to go too slowly or land up being overwhelmed.

Multitasking is mostly a female attribute and although useful, it’s not the best way to manage time. Intuition needs to be tempered by a predominantly male trait, that of structure. Understanding this allows us to dance between the two ways of perceiving time, balancing hunches with logic in our time management.

Your heart beats 100 000 times in a day. Take a deep breath. Sit upright and consider the following:

1. What moves you? – By defining and establishing your hierarchy of values you can clarify your priorities. Ask yourself: “Is this the best thing I can be doing right now? What will have the most positive effect on my long-term future?” Remind yourself regularly of why you do what you do.

2. Sharpen your focus. – Your attitude determines the heights you can achieve. Ask yourself, “Am I doing things in the best way possible right now to achieve my goals?”

3. Diarise – Plan and prioritise. Set a “to do” list in the morning. As you proceed, tick off what you have achieved. Create a balance between work and play. But remember that you can also play with work.

4. Apply the 80:20 rule – About a fifth of your time is likely to give you four-fifths of your results and happiness. Avoid activities that generate low value.

5. Establish the right beliefs about time – Know your limiting beliefs about time. What are the common denominators in things you don’t have time for and things you do have time for?

6. Give up guilt and anxiety – Being in the “now” liberates you from guilt. Anxiety and fear enslave you to the “future”.

7. Change your energy – Align yourself energetically, with integrity, in what you think, say, do and feel, to express with authenticity. Then focus and make decisions according to your values blueprint.

8. Communicate clearly – When you communicate, only 7 percent of meaning is conveyed via the words that you use, the rest is via tone and body language.

9. Go visual – If you tend to think “I have too much on my plate”, change the pictures in your head. Close your eyes, take everything off the plate and make a fresh decision on what needs attention!

10. Delegate with trust – By delegating you save time. Done properly, team members are motivated and develop confidence.

l Grant Hamel is managing director and founder of Latitude Training www.latitudetraining.co.za