THE TIME TRAP
By
William Cottringer


There is one big problem we all have today—time—or more specifically, not having enough of it! This phenomenon is rather peculiar because time is the only natural resource that is equally distributed to everyone. Everyday everyone has twenty-four hours to use. A few people use it well and accomplish much. Most of us let time use us and we are continuously running out of time.

Have you figured out the problem yet? The problem lies mostly with our perception of time. If we see time as purely mechanical—every minute, hour, day, week, month or year being exactly the same, then we will probably always run out of time. On the other hand, if we open our minds to the possibility that time is really more psychological, there can be more time than we know what to do with.

How many times have you been rushed, hurried up and got to your appointment ahead of time? How often have you traveled the same distance under similar circumstances and arrived at much different intervals? Does time drag buy when you are bored and fly buy when you are having fun?

We all have semi-conscious beliefs about important things like time. These beliefs flavor us in ways that may be counterproductive. A long time ago we structured time to be mechanical by means of sun dials and hour sand glasses in order to regulate prayer times in Monasteries more consistently. There are two possibilities to consider here. Either time conforms to those mechanical measurements in reality, or those devices force time to conform to their artificial measurements. Which belief is more productive?

You will never have any spare time by watching the clock, looking at the calendar or gazing at your wrist watch. When you lose yourself in time, so to speak, you will have more time than you will possibly know what to do with. If you act like each moment is your last, time will last much longer. The now moment will expand and tomorrow will actually take more than two days to turn into yesterday.

How can you join the now moment and stretch your time instead of always running in the red? Try any of these ten easy mental suggestions.

QUESTION YOUR BELIEF ABOUT THE NATURE OF TIME

Is time really more mechanical or psychological? Realize that your beliefs drive your behavior. If you don’t like running out of time, discard the artificial limitations of clocks and calendars. Think about the everyday experiences you have had that confirm the irregularity of time. If you need proof positive, consider these facts: Atomic clocks actually run faster at higher altitudes and objects fall slower at the Equator than they do at the Poles.

REORDER YOUR OWN PRIORITIES

The wrong priorities waste significant amounts of time. Reacting to other people’s emergencies is a good example. Challenge yourself to get more done in less time by working on the right priorities. Planning and preparation both save time. So does doing something right the first go around. The biggest time waster is poor communication. Develop power communication skills—saying and writing things clearly, concisely and with maximum impact to avoid misunderstanding— and you will become master of the clock rather than its slave.

LESS REACTION, MORE ACTION

Stop waiting to fix a situation gone awry; prevent it! Think ahead of the curve and anticipate the twists and turns and bumps and thumps. Most things are fairly predictable if you are tuned into the clues. Reactions only beget more reactions and a week later you are wondering where all the time went. Choose to act in thoughtful ways that get productive results with the right priorities.

STOP TRYING TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE

You are just spinning your wheels by trying to be somebody you are not or trying to do something that is beyond your current capabilities. For example, you can’t avoid failure or control negative thoughts and you can’t run a mile until you are in physical shape. Learn something positive from those experiences quickly, or focus more on what you can do to get to the next place you want to be and then move on without over-extending your stay.

ALLOW YOUR MIND SOME FLEXIBILITY

When you think you have to do something a certain way or get certain results in what you are doing, you will usually end up unhappily on the short end of time, needing even more time to get things the way you want them to be. The more you can loosen up on your expectations and the way you do things, the quicker you will accomplish them and gradually improve results in everything, saving more time over the long haul.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY THINKING

More than likely you already have enough good information in your mind to make smart decisions and act productively. You don’t need more information; you just have to use the information you already have better. Looking for more information may be a waste of time. For instance, there are a hundred effective time management strategies for saving time that go undiscovered or unused. You don’t need to invent new gimmicks, you just need to question why you don’t use what you already know.

USE ORDINARY CREATIVITY

Solving problems can be time consuming whereas creative problem-solving is often a useful short cut. Many people don’t use their ordinary creativity. Ordinary creativity is when you look at something ordinary and then figure out how to use it in a new and unusual way. When you re-arrange the parts of something, you always get different results. All you have to do is keep varying the approach until you get the results you want. It may seem ludicrous, but much time is spent trying to get different results by using the same approach over and over again.

ALWAYS OVER-ESTIMATE

It is generally safer to allow more time than you think you may need to finish something. That way you often have time left over to do something else. Oddly, you usually over-estimate what you can get done in one hour and underestimate what you can get done in a year. When you plan things with too tight of a time frame, you rush through the first things to hurry up and get to the next thing on your list. Neither gets done very well and you may have to go back and repair the damage which takes even more time.

MAKE GOOD CHOICES

Bad choices probably account for most of the time we waste. How do we learn the art of only making right choices? The first thing you have to do is take a close look at the choices you have been making and the results those choices have been getting you. If you are not getting the results you want, you have been making the wrong choices. Try making different choices until you start getting the results you want. When you stop wasting time making bad choices, you will have more time to study situations closer to make better choices.

SLOW DOWN

When you run around 1000 mph in a panic to get everything done, you are just speeding up time and making it pass much quicker—having much less of it to get everything done. A smart trick is to slow your self down so that time slows down too. This is how you learn the psychological nature of time. If you think you don't have enough time to do something, you won't, but if you do you will.

Realize that the true nature of time may be more psychological than mechanical and get the most out of what time you have by practicing these ten mental suggestions.

William Cottringer is a Success Coach, Sport Psychologist and College Teacher in Glen Carbon, IL. He is author of You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too. He can be reached at ckurtdoc.charter.net.