Time Awareness Tip
Three ways a timer can increase your time awareness!
Goals: to increase awareness of where your time goes, to eliminate procrastination and to improve your focus as you work.
1. Increase your awareness: Time routine tasks
Time how long it takes for you to get out of the house in the morning, how long it takes for your child to get dressed, how long it takes to get to work or to anywhere where you regularly travel. Then add an additional 20% to that time in order to allow for variations and unexpected challenges.
2. Eliminate procrastination
When I realized that I was procrastinating because I disliked unloading the dishwasher, I timed how long it took and it took only 5 minutes! Now when I resist emptying the dishwasher, I tell myself it will only take five minutes and push through the resistance.
3. Manage the time you spend on a given task.
Have you ever sat down at the computer to send a single e-mail or opened a book or magazine and lost track of time? When you begin any activity that you might get lost in, set a timer for the amount of time you wish to spend on the activity. I usually start with 15-20 minutes.
When the timer goes off, ask yourself two questions:
1. “Am I doing what I intended to do or has my focus wandered?”
2. “Is there something else that I should turn my attention to at this time?”
You will be amazed at how much your awareness of time increases with this simple practice. If you need just a little more time to reach a good stopping point, reset the timer before resuming your activity.
Using a timer is the most powerful way I know to increase your time awareness day by day, minute by minute.
Don’t have a timer? There are timers everywhere, on your mobile phone, on your computer, in your kitchen. I wear my timer on my wrist in the form of an inexpensive Timex watch. If you do not own a timer, invest in one at your local hardware or kitchen store.
For more tips, join us at our January 26th workshop!
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