The Power Of Emotions And Time Management

The biggest problem with time management is we feel we have more of it than we really do.

I find myself cramming appointments back to back during the day, taking loads of books to read on a three day trip and leaving my weekends unplanned guessing that everything will work itself out in real time.

BIG MISTAKE.

I’m not suggesting that every minute of the day needs to be scheduled, but it is important to stay focused with time.

Time is the ultimate communism. We all get the same amount and we have to spend it all together.

There are two big factors that I’m learning about time and time management. First of all – before I even go down this road – time really can’t be managed. It can only be spent. But I digress.

Let’s look at what I’m calling F(2).

Focus

Deadlines help me focus. Focus is key, because it allows us to actually get things accomplised. I am learning to despise multi-tasking. I get pissed when people interupt my workflow.

Flow

Focus comes from an emotional state called “Flow.” I have this book on my shelf by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called Finding Flow. It’s one of the many books I’ve dabbled through a bit here and there.

The basic premise is this. Each of us have certain activities that we do in life that we lose complete track of time and are absorbed with. Usually this comes from a high emotional state that these activities make us feel.

[Every time I hear of friends who spend days playing video games I think of this principle.]

Here are my thoughts on the subject (and it might be in the book too and haven’t gotten that far yet). Spend time programming your mind to EMOTIONALLY enjoy activities that you know will bring the desired outcome in your life.

How do we program our minds?

By manipulation. We need to talk ourselves into emotional states that can render results.

“It can’t be done!” you might say.

Hogwash. Every successful actor in Hollywood knows how to do this. They have made a career out of tricking their minds into adopting an emotional state that they have willed themselves to have.

It’s not a matter of possibility – but rather a matter of willingness.

The problem is – most of us are too afraid of letting ourselves go to an emotional state that will create flow. And this is the reason we labor through our day and get nothing done that takes us toward our goals.

In my mind it all comes down to the emotions. They dictate what we will do, have and be in life.

Thoughts?

*Photo by Yogendra174