What I’ve Learned During Quarantine and The Time That Followed (1/2 posts) : Time Control
Funny thing is that even though I’m always trying to expect the unexpected — this virus caught me off guard. My goals for 2020 were to reshape my career path and the relationships in my life and surprisingly, 9 months into it, I realized that I’ve managed to do so.
I strongly believe that we are the product managers of our lives. We differ from each other by having different KPIs and resources, we might plan and prioritize differently, and yet our life is our product. I would like to share some practical rules I established for myself this year that helped me to keep sane and allowed me to release new (life) features.
In this post I will focus on the element of time and in the following, on the element of mind.
1. Buy a plant — to track time
When you live in uncertainty — hours develop into days, days develop into weeks, weeks into months etc. A week before the official lock-down I bought 3 Giacinto bulbs.
It stood on my desk next to the computer and each day the bulbs grew a little more, to eventually become a greenish beautiful plant, having gorgeous flowers and an amazing smell.
Over time, realizing how much they grew gave me a perspective about how much time has passed. It made me aware of the changes around me and within, eliminating the feeling of each day being similar to yesterday.
A plant can be your hourglass that visualizes time movement on a daily(or weekly) basis, emphasising the process of outer and inner growth- right in front of you.
2. Take a moment for yourself — to get focused
For me, it’s the first cup of coffee. I know, shocking, right? This cup represents the beginning of my working day, after I ran, showered, put on my make-up and clothes and had breakfast. It’s the time slot separating me from everything else.
It’s been a few months now that I made this time slot part of my morning ritual; On the weekend I buy myself a cup of coffee in the nearby cafe and walk towards the park. I sit there for about an hour, looking at the lake, listening to the birds singing. On the weekdays when I’m working from home I’ll listen to a podcast or read something interesting while zipping it. At work I’ll make that time all about a conversation that is not work related.
Those breaks allow my brain to have this positive context- switch between different types of work.
3. Make a schedule — to get things done
Use Google calendar, a bullet journal or whatever works for you in order to plan it right and get things done.
Are you keeping a long “To Do” list with lots of bullet points? Remember your next major project, the one you splitted into chunks and tasks? Put them all on a calendar. In addition to those you should also add the fun stuff — meeting family, friends, workout sessions and coffee.
That’s the only way for you to make the time to get things done. Aside from putting them all on the calendar, you should also stick to your schedule. But you know that already, right?
4. Put your favorite track — to lift you up
A friend of mine taught me this trick when we were traveling together. It helps especially those of you who are “NOT the morning type”.
When you turn off the alarm clock- turn on the music. Define a morning soundtrack that will make a happier entrance to your day. In addition, it will make you get up and start your morning routine, without snoozing.
Those are my top 4 regarding time. As you probably noticed, nothing on this list is too hard to perform. When it comes to “TIME”, perspective, zoom- OUTs and zoom -INs are very important, so that we won’t lose the momentum — to rest or to achieve.
I would love to hear from you about your insights regarding time during this challenging period, and stay toned for the second part in this series of posts.
