Different Kinds of Time

Time is our greatest asset! Time is a bitch!
Many entrepreneurs have a love/hate relationship with their clocks and calendars.
Consider the possibility that there are two kinds$of time – fast time and slow time.

Fast time: You have a lot to do, you’re multi-tasking, you’re on deadline or beyond, you are responding to many demands, too many demands.

Michael Gerber, of E-Myth fame, calls this “doin’ it , doin’ it, doin’ it.” We’ve all been there. We all live there. But Gerber suggests that when you’re “doin’ it , doin’ it, doin’ it,” you’re acting more as Chief Employee than Chief Executive.

Some call it “multi-tasking” and revel in their skill in managing multiple concurrent tasks. A recent book from David Rock on the anatomy and function of the brain suggests that multi-tasking is a trap. David suggests that when we segment our mental processing power to managing several things at once, we degrade available intellect from MBA level to 8th Grade level. (It’s even worse if you (or I) didn’t start out at the MBA level.) Summary: If you divide your time, you divide your intellect.

Slow time. Consider the possibility that if you were working in SLOW time, you could get your whole brain in play. Imagine that it’s a new low gear for your brain.
Try this. Surprises coming. Right now. Stop what you are doing, stare straight ahead, and turn your head slowly to the right, so slowly that if someone came in the room, they wouldn’t see your head move. Spend 2 minutes turning, then bring your head back regularly. Go!

>———- ———- ———– ———- ———— ———– ——— ———– ———- ——— >

What was that like? Didn’t time slow up for you? In a demonstration at F.I.T. in NY last year, dancer and teacher Cathy Salit put us through these paces. Several people had surprising difficulty, most got interested, some really excited.

But what happened for you? If you actually did the exercise, you may have found something interesting going on. You may have experienced a different sensation of time. And, to my amazement and delight, a sense of being able to control the experience of time! If you didn’t try it before, try it now, take 2 minutes (check your watch) and turn your head very slowly to one side. Catch your breath and then turn it back normally. Note the difference.

Consider this. You and I can choose to live in a world of time scarcity, or in a world of time abundance.

Scarcity is familiar – active, stressful, and frequently frustrating. You just never get enough done, no matter how much you do! Could that be because you have 2 or more 8th graders at work on the process?

How about abundance? If you choose abundance, you have all the time there is! Wow! Consider how it would feel to live in a world where you had all the time there was! Think what your life would feel like, and be like, in a world of slow time, of time abundance.

And, if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you can move from Chief Employee Time to CEO Time. There’s a spreadsheet on my website which details the comparison. Would you agree that you are far more valuable to your business as a CEO than a Chief Employee? And, if you’ve remarked that you never have time to be CEO, consider that if in the world of Slow or Abundant time, you absolutely can create that time.

Advantages of Fast or Scarcity Time – many tasks addressed at once. Urgency concerns addressed. Liability- time scarcity, work performed superficially. Anxiety, panic, stress, incompletion.

Advantages of Slow or Abundant Time – tasks addressed according to the needs of the task, with all your resources brought to bear.
Liability- need to shift mental gears, abandon panic, control your brain, your personal processes, yourself.

Now: the Payoff.

My biggest surprise in this inquiry: I didn’t realize that I had the choice!

I’m beginning to think that this concept – choice- is pretty important.

We can live and manage in either world, or both. All we have to do is choose, and shift gears.
Does this sound like something you’d like to try, or we should talk about?

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Feedback request.
If you take on this inquiry, I’d love to hear about the result. Much appreciate any and all comments. Seen as contribution: Criticism, complaint, suggestions.

Phone calls also welcome. 516 944-6454

Craig Jennings

1)  “Your Brain At Work,” David Rock.,  Harper-Collins publishers
2) For much more on the concepts of scarcity and abundance, see Coaching Into Greatness, by Kim George,  published by John Wylie and Sons.

Making time!

While time often seems scanty to us, would you believe that you and I have all the time there is?  Would you believe, a lifetime of time!  In fact, since it’s your time, you even have the choice of how to think about it – as a scarcity, or an abundance.

You absolutely cannot manage time.  Visualize a metronome – you can change the speed of tick and tock, and the feeling of slow or fast, but the time is invariable.  It just flows.  The trick is in managing your belief of time, your perception of time, the way you act in the time you have so that you get important things done!   Time won’t change, but your results will change if you manage your beliefs.   That’s a promise!

Example:  One of my clients, Reena, was having trouble “getting things done.”  We had a quick conversation.  She tried the process below, created an hour between 8 and 9am, called it Reena time.  Here’s her response.   “Craig – the best thing I ever did – “Reena time.” I got so much done in a couple of days that I haven’t been able to do in a long time.  I wrote things down and I feel I have a plan for now.”

Take just 6 steps.

Step 1. Start from the belief that you have all the time in your life.

Step 2. You do have time to plan.  Look at the things you want to accomplish (and, using Covey’s language,)” start with the end in mind.”  Make a list, or spreadsheet, of those things, spelling out the result you want, and some of the ways you might accomplish it.  Example 1:  Get the IRS off my back.  (It may start with a call to a tax expert.)  Example 2:  Get current on marketing practices, and find some good ones to adopt.  (It may start with reading a book on marketing, or corresponding with a guru.)

Step 3. Make a list of promises to yourself before you start.  Write them on a piece of paper.  Now publish them.  Make them public. Tell your coach, your partner, your friend, that you’re now in the business of “making time.”  Tell them what you’re making time for.    And ask one of them to be your accountability partner.

Step 4. “Make time.”  With your list, go over your calendar, and create blocks of time for each accomplishment.  You may wish to put down just one accomplishment in a block of time, or boldly go where you’ve never gone before, and put down many.  If your goal is to complete your reading, you may want to set aside several one or two hour blocks.  If your goal is to tidy your desk, 15 minutes a morning may be well spent.  Would right now be a very good time?  When you imagine this, can you feel a change beginning?   Yes, you have the time!  Modify and use the attached worksheet.

Step 5. Honor your starting times, and honor your ending times.  If you are going to read for an hour from 10-11am, then start at 10am.  Don’t answer the phone, or the kids!  At the end of the hour, stop.  Don’t finish the chapter.  Bookmark the page and congratulate yourself.  You just “made time!”   Remember, you can always make more time whenever you want.  Now you can praise yourself for being in control of your time.   If you didn’t complete your assignment in sixty minutes, have a look at your calendar; see where you can find another 60 minutes.  Do something else, then come back at the planned time, and complete.

Step 6. Report on your results to your accountability partner.  If you have success or difficulty with this, you’re welcome to share it with me:  call 516 944-6454 or email to craig@craigjennings.com.     Please put “MAKING TIME” on the subject line.

Craig Jennings