Using time
No matter how long you live or how many lives you have (as a cat or buddhist), the time of one lifetime is limited. In fact, it is the most valuable resource a human has. So how come, we are so bad at using it wisely?
Maybe you know how to do this — then this article is a bad use of your time. Don't read it, skip to something else instead. If you feel like you could be happier using your time a bit more wisely, you might find a hint or two that could help you.
In our free time we give it to Netflix and Facebook instead of doing something that truly enriches and rests us. Yes, it is important to be connected to other people, it is of crucial importance, but only a portion of your need for connection can be satisfied with keyboard based interaction. And yes, we need time to unwind and just let things be. But again, only a portion of that time is wisely spent as a potato. We know this. We feel it. Yet, we behave differently.
At work we give time to meetings, use it to be or sometimes only appear to be busy. Yes, we need meetings in order to synchronise with other people. This is crucial if you want to get anything done — no one has ever done anything alone. Even if you thought you were, the people that enabled you by teaching you the necessary skills, giving you the tools, allowing you the time and space were collaborators. And yes, we need to be busy, focussed on the task at hand, without putting in the actual work that needs to be done, nothing will ever be accomplished. But do we do this wisely?
There are only two questions you need to ask yourself whenever something wants some of your attention:
(1) Does this help me move towards where i want to be?
(2) Is this the best way to move towards where i want to be?
I will go through each of these to clarify what they mean.
Both questions imply that you have a clear idea of what it is that you want to accomplish. This can be a life-goal, a plan for a holiday, a project you are responsible for, a meal you are cooking — it does not matter what it is, it just matters that you know exactly what it is. This cannot be overstated. More often than not we jump into action as soon as we feel we have a first idea of what it is that we want to do, but very very often it turns out that we actually had no clear vision.
This clear vision is not only the vital ingredient for filtering whether something is good at helping you move towards this vision but it is absolutely crucial to make the even more important decision of deciding whether the task at hand is the most impactful thing you can use your time for in order to move towards accomplishing your vision.
If you followed to this point, it does not come as a surprise to you that the conclusion of all of this is to give time to the process of thinking about your goals and to the best possible steps towards these goals. This is so commonplace that you most likely are somewhere between bored and irritated right now, but if you are honest — how often do you actually take the time to think before you act? If you are like most people, not very often.
Get yourself into the habit of asking the two crucial questions about every activity throughout your day and you will fundamentally change the way you use your time and almost inevitably feel more fulfilled in the process.
And as always, while just sticking to this will have a massive impact on your productivity, but as soon as other people are involved, things become a little bit more tricky. For this i can offer you the tool we created to save our lives — literally by stopping to waste 50% of our waking time in meetings.
We call it untwist and it helps us to untangle all the open ends and discussions meetings usually create and turn them into a straight thread to success.
I always love hearing from people about their experience regarding meetings, productivity and happiness — feel free to email me at thomas@untwist.io !
