Time to Reset

Time never seems to be enough. But how can we be more efficient and effective with the time we’re given? It really isn’t a question of time management. We’re either over-functioning by being caught up in perfectionism or under-functioning by being caught up in procrastination. Whether we’re procrastinating or we’re in perfectionism, we are in stress. It creates stress for us or it creates stress for other people because we’re not getting into a productive state, and that affects everyone else around us in some shape or form. The book, The Productivity Zone: Stop the Tug of War with Time, talks about the ten core drivers that help us get into and stay in the productivity zone.

As we get older, creating new habits seems to become more difficult. They are especially hard to stick to when they involve any kind of physical exertion. On average, it takes up to 60 days to develop a new habit. You can actually learn to create new habits and stick to it using a technique called habit stacking. Habit stacking simply means stacking a new habit you want to develop onto another habit that you’re already doing. An example would be placing a glass of water right beside your toothbrush if you want to develop the habit of drinking water first thing when you get up. You’re stacking it on the habit of brushing your teeth because it’s right there, and so every day when you brush your teeth, you’re going to see it there and it triggers you to take that glass of water daily.

There are many kinds of leaders. Some push people forward to get to where they need to go, and there are other who lead people by pulling them. Bearj Jehanian, author of Break Down The Walls encourages business people to be the second type of leader. When you trust your team with your mission and give them permission to act along with you, everyone becomes more efficient and effective.

Time simply doesn’t seem to be enough and cramming our mountain of tasks into a day can leave us tired and wired so that we lose the capability to think logically and communicate effectively. With all the phones buzzing, emails and text messages beeping, and different obligations requiring our attention, our system gets overstimulated. We can learn to take time to slow down, calm down and relax between key transitions. The drive between leaving work and going home or those short breaks within your work schedule can be used to shift the energy and focus on calming down and relaxing so we can take back our time with greater focus and energy.