The Time Finder with Paula Eder
The way you use your time is the way you live your life.
Archive for January, 2009
Find Time When Times are Hard
Posted on January 30, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
I read this morning that here in New Hampshire the State is facing the prospect of lay-offs in order to address budget deficits. On the federal level, a new administration is working to get up to speed and address looming issues.
When I read headlines about lay-offs and cut-backs, I often think about the hundreds and thousands of individual lives that are jarred and jostled off track by these upheavals. Fiscal worries are endemic everywhere.
Have you ever thought about how this affects your time choices and your experience of your time?
Economic constraints affect choices about time in many ways. For one thing, the range of available choices may be dramatically curtailed. In lean times, decisions about things like vacations, new educational pursuits, or new appliances may not even make it to the table. Your focus is on the basics.
In addition, when livelihoods are precarious, people often (quite wisely) spend time planning for contingencies. “What if’s” have an immediacy that they don’t in more prosperous times.
Worries may eat up time that in the past was spent on other pursuits. This can be a very challenging time trap. Not only does worry take time, it also saps your energy and creativity right when you need them most. A key time choice is to recognize the debilitating effect of this and use self talk, time boundaries, and self-discipline to turn your mind away from nagging anxieties.
As you contemplate the current economic terrain, you may feel drawn to simplify your life. Maybe you’ll discover that what once felt like necessities are actually luxuries! Whenever you simplify and de-clutter your life, you experience time in a different way. Interestingly, simplification expands your experience of your moments, much as silence and stillness do.
Finally, whatever challenges the current crisis brings your way, an attitude of gratitude will bring you through. Pause in ANY moment and think of something for which you feel genuinely grateful. I guarantee that your energy and your moment will be transformed!
Are you directly affected by our current economic crisis? How does it affect your time choices? Would you like to be able to approach this differently? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
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Find Strong Time and Stop Snowballing Stress!
Posted on January 29, 2009 by Paula, under Time After Time.
In yesterday’s Time Finder post I wrote a little about our latest snowstorm and dealing with the stress it triggered.
Enlarging on that thought, I would note that stress not only affects our productivity and health. It also affects the quality of our experience of time. It affects how our moments feel and that, in turn, affects our perspective, our time choices, and our overall quality of life. To use an apt seasonal metaphor, stress always snowballs!
There is something you can do about it, though. It’s a time choice you can make, in each moment, to deepen and enhance your experience of time. Stress doesn’t need to be in the driver’s seat. How can you turn this around for yourself?
In a recent article in EzineArticles.com I shared some Time Management Tips – 3 Essentials to Enlarge Your Experience of Time. The solution is to stop and seek out silence. Truly, it takes but a moment:
Time management tips can, amazingly, actually be used to enlarge your experience of time. You open your mind to journey from problem-solving time to sacred, or strong, time.
Stepping into strong time helps us connect with the deepest wellsprings of any moment. Among other things, it stops snowballing stress right in its tracks! That, alone, enhances our daily experience immensely!
How do you cope with the snowballing stresses in your life? Is strong time something that you resonate to? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
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Find Time to Deal with Stress
Posted on January 28, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Energy.
Finding time to deal with the stress in your life greatly enhances your productivity, as well as your enjoyment of each moment. What kinds of stressors do you experience in your life?
We’re slated to get a significant snowstorm here in New Hampshire today, and if you’ve been following The Time Finder, you may recall that we had an ice storm back in December. (That’s putting it mildly!)
As soon as I heard the weather prediction, I could feel my stress level rising.
Stress takes a toll on us, both mentally and physically. It can leave us exhausted, paralyzed, and susceptible to all manner of illnesses. The good news is that there is a lot that we can do to cope with stress.
The first step is to recognize when we are feeling stressed. An impending snowstorm is a stress-trigger that I recognized quite easily this winter!
The second step is to set aside time to deal with it!
It does take time to mitigate stress. However, the positive effect that your time investment produces is well worth the time it takes!
In their article titled Methods of Stress Reduction, Harry Mills, Ph.D., Natalie Reiss, Ph.D. and Mark Dombeck, Ph.D. outline some very easy, and accessible stress reduction techniques. They start with breathing-based techniques in this article, and then move on, and subsequent articles that you can access from their site.
I suggest that you try some of their simple suggestions the next time you feel stressed. Focus on your breathing, not on whether you’re doing it right – that will just add to your stress!
Do not worry about how well you are doing. Try to concentrate on your breathing and your focus word. If other thoughts come to mind, gently direct your mind back towards your breathing.
What are some typical stressors for you? How do you cope with them? Is it time well-spent? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
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Finding Time to Recommit to Resolutions … or Recalibrate Them
Posted on January 27, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
Finding time to take stock when you’re working on personal goals can be a difficult challenge. I was thinking the other day that, as we near the end of the month of January, it’s a good time to look at how things have transpired on the New Year’s resolution front.
When you set goals, it’s important to be able to look honestly at how you’re progressing. Having steps along the way that are measurable can be a very helpful way to do that. It gives you good, concrete information. At the same time it can short-circuit any tendency to be self-critical.
This late January time is often a point when people give up on their resolutions. Maybe you thought that things would go more quickly or more easily. Maybe unexpected obstacles arose. Whatever the case, this is a good time to take stock and either recommit or recalibrate!
In my article titled Time Management Tips – How to Create a Compelling Vision to Fuel Your Enthusiasm I look at some ways that you can recharge your resolve!
This might be a good time to go back and revisit your original reason for making the resolution. What excited you about it? Is it still something that you want to do? Is there a way that you can make it more achievable for yourself?
So how have you been doing on your New Year’s resolutions? How can you adjust your goals and/or your expectations to get moving again? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
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Finding Time Management Tools on Cyber Monday
Posted on January 26, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
If your business is on-line, or if you simply spend a great deal of time working on your computer, an on-line time management tool can make a lot of sense.
These time tools often enable you to track your time using web-based applications which are accessible from anywhere that you can fire up an internet connection. On-line time tracking and on-line to do lists also can be set up to interface with a variety of on-line calendars, as well as e-mail systems, mobile phones, blackberries, palm pilots, etc. They enable you to monitor tasks from anywhere and, as they are paperless, they also provide a green alternative to paper-based systems.
This Cyber Monday I wanted to share a compendium of time management tools that I recently read about on Twitter. It’s a briefly annotated spreadsheet that was compiled and posted on the blog println in November of 2008. (If you are puzzled by the name of the blog, here is a definition of println – a technical term whose definition left me still in the dark!)
The spreadsheet of Task, Time, and Project Management Software was compiled by the blog author, devit, and offers the name and URL of 78 software products. It also indicates whether the products are web-based, and whether they are free. It appears to be a very thorough list, and includes some tools that we have already discussed here (like Remember the Milk – which my VA swears by) along with lots of others.
Have you used any of the time tools listed? How do you like them? I’d love to hear!
PS Due to the interest expressed in Twitter and Twitter tools, we are adding a category titled “Twitter Tools” to the links in our sidebar. If you are using and liking a tool that you don’t see in our links, please let us know!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time for Deliberate Calm on Flight 1549
Posted on January 23, 2009 by Paula, under Time Choices.
Most everyone by now has heard the story of Flight 1549 and Captain Sully. Many have used the word miraculous to describe the landing of this plane and the survival of everyone on board. I see it, even more, as an inspiring and hopeful illustration of the powerful convergence of thorough training, extensive practice, good time choices, and solid decision-making.
Jonah Lehrer, author of the just-published book How We Decide, editor of Seed Magazine, and writer of the blog The Frontal Cortex was a guest yesterday on the NH Public Radio Show Word of Mouth. Virginia Prescott interviewed Mr. Lehrer about what is involved in decision-making in general, and how that may have played out in particular on US Airways’ Flight 1549 on Thursday, January 15th at @ 3PM.
As our understanding of the brain has evolved, one theme has remained fairly constant throughout the history of Western thinking. That is that our thought processes are governed by either the emotional or the rational. What is being discovered now is that human thought processes involve a combination of these elements. It’s not really an “either/or” proposition.
According to Mr. Lehrer, the key element in the good outcome for Flight 1549 was the exercise of deliberate calm by Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III. (more…)
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Finding Time for Creative Work
Posted on January 22, 2009 by Paula, under Time After Time.
The unfortunate myth is that creativity is a mysterious gift bestowed by the muses on a few special people. You either have it or you don’t? That is simply false. Sadly, it’s a falsehood that cuts many people off from mountains of possibility – as well as depriving the world of untold beauty and innovation.
The fact is that creativity is more a matter of persistence and passion than of muse-induced magic! Creativity has to do with commitment and with opening to the possibilities in each moment. As well, it has to do with being able to wait in that spirit of openness, letting things percolate and remain unfinished, as they evolve.
How do you manage this ambiguity that is inherent in the creative process … while at the same time moving ahead with your daily responsibilities and tasks? How do you maintain your hold on the creative thread over time?
In his most recent post on 43folders Merlin Mann writes about Twyla’s Box. Twyla is Twyla Tharp – the much-revered and ever-fascinating dancer and choreographer. She, some years ago, wrote a book titled The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life that explores creativity and shares the practical (more…)
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Finding Time on the Day After
Posted on January 21, 2009 by Paula, under Time After Time.
Time feels different to me on the day after a big event. Does it to you? The event may be one that we view as positive or negative. Either way, it often has an impact on the quality of the time that follows. Have you noticed that, too?
Emily Dickinson wrote about feelings following great pain in her poem titled simply, “341,”
After great pain, a formal feeling comes-
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
There is a disorientation that comes with change, be it a wrenching loss or a joyful transition like a wedding or a birth. The next day, you awaken and your world looks different. Your world is different.
Yet what can be most disorienting about the time after a big event is that, while your world is transformed in some way, it also remains substantially the same. As Emily Dickinson goes on to write:
The Feet, mechanical, go round-
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought-
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
Of course, she is writing about grief. But the same is true at the more joyful end of the spectrum. After a much anticipated event has occurred, the tasks of daily living do not disappear. The dishes, the laundry, the bills – these things call out, even as you bring home your newly minted Nobel Prize!
I think of large events in this way: Something has happened that has caused me to pause in the daily round of events. It is almost as if time stops – that’s how it can feel.
Then, after the event, it can feel odd to step back into the flow of time. Is life different? Is it the same? This is when everyday tasks can be grounding and even comforting. I find it very helpful to welcome them, rather than feel a let down when they reappear on my “plate.”
Where large events can open for us the majesty and mysteries of life, the day after always reveals the immediate next steps for us – the tasks and challenges that we need to explore for ourselves. How we respond to this, each day, shapes our path. It all matters!
How does time feel to you on the day after a big event? Have you noticed that there is a different quality to it? How does this affect you? I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Finding Time to Stick with Change
Posted on January 20, 2009 by Paula, under Transitions and Time.
The Time Finder is not a political blog, but it would seem odd to not note the fact that today marks a major change in the governance of the United States. Whatever one thinks about the nature of the change, there is no denying that we are living in a time of transition.
While the changes we mark with Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States are taking place on the national stage, nearly every element has its echo in our individual lives.
Notice, for example, how planful the transition has been. Picture the lists and checklists involved in every element of the changeover … the prioritizing, the information-gathering, the pro’s and con’s weighed. Imagine the necessity for time boundaries as demands rise and it becomes more challenging to carve out time for self care, for family – even, perhaps, for Tweeting!
Another important piece of transition management comes to mind, though as 1/20/09 arrives. That has to do with hopes and expectations … and time.
Change has been a watchword of this new administration. Their challenge will be to acclimate Americans, and the world, to the fact that change takes time, and that people need to work to not be discouraged by that reality. The administration, and Obama in particular, will need to exercise leadership, and will need to be trusted in that role.
And that is how it is for us, as we go manage our own, everyday changes. Did you make New Year’s resolutions that are proving challenging as the weeks go on? And are you, perhaps, disappointed that your efforts haven’t borne the fruit that you anticipated?
Here’s where you become your own coach – a leader in your own life. Here’s where you step in with encouragement, reminding yourself that your goals are worthy and change doesn’t happen in a day.
You’ll need to be steady with yourself. Follow through on promises, be supportive, and be realistic. Self-trust is key in helping real change to take root. You’re exploring new personal territory when you make changes. Validate the courage involved, as well as the challenges. Take it a day at a time and work to keep your expectations realistic.
Change is a challenge, be it on a national or a personal level. Just keep repeating to yourself, as someone once said, “Yes we can!”
Are you struggling with resolutions or other changes right now? What helps you take heart and keep going? Drop me a line … I’d love to hear!
What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!
Let’s explore time together …
Other Posts You Might Enjoy!
Find Time and Maybe Even Find Twitter Nirvana with Some of These Tools
Posted on January 19, 2009 by Paula, under Time and Technology.
Friday’s Time Finder post focused on some of the challenges people face when learning the Twitter ropes, and getting used to managing Twitter time.
This morning, since it’s “Cyber Monday,” I’d like to share some Twitter Tools that you might find useful.
TweetLater is a tool that I’ve written about in the past. It gives you the capacity to schedule Tweets, which can be very helpful if you have particular information that you want to share over a period of time, or if you are going to be away. I’ve included a link to their “What’s New” page so that you can see what they’ve added. Particularly helpful is the new capacity to view @ replies and to manage tweets across all of your accounts in one place. This can be a big help if you have multiple Twitter accounts. (And I do realize that many/most of us are working hard to just manage one at this point – multiple accounts may come later, though!)
TweetDeck is a very popular and widely-used Twitter “dashboard” that (more…)
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