Posts Tagged ‘time management’

Let’s talk about time, baby…

Saturday, September 18th, 2010 by annemarie

People are always asking me about time: Where do you find the time? How do you manage time/ Don’t you get freaked out by time passing? etc etc

Here’s the thing: time management is a missnomer…a lie…no one manages TIME! Time just is. It’s like money, only real and valuable by agreement. It might be a dimension but we all get the same days, hours and minutes. How many is a question mark. So no one actually manages time~we manage ourselves in time. Once you really get that you have got the keys to the kingdom.

I do alot of time blocking…essentially I plan my work and work my plan like a samuri. Every minute of planning saves me 10 minutes in execution, so says te research. I plan for about 2 hrs a week. I block out large periods of uninterruptible time for rest, unplugging and writing or thinking. I treat TV like candy: a treat not to be over indulged in. I manage myself in time to be where I said, to do what I said more often than not.

Basically I don’t worry about time I worry about me. My mindset, my pace, my energy, how long does it take me to do things now that I’m slowing down…do I need assistance? I also manage the conversations I’m in. Language gives life to our world and creates EVERYTHING. It’s mighty and magical. I manage the conversations I have with myself AND those I have with others. All my results and what I produce are a function of me managing my conversations OVER TIME. When I screw up or drop conversations out (with myself and others)~there are no results.

Given my experience of my ALS symptoms I am an impatient woman. NOTHING moves fast enough for me! Instantaneous is slow to me. I have a lot I want to accomplish before I exit stage right! and I’ll probably die trying to get it all out there. So I need every edge I can get. My plan gives me that edge. It helps me not worry about time and it’s inexorable pace, and to remain positively focused on my pace, my mental and emotional space, and managing the whole of myself in TIME. That’s why I called this process the Master Plan. It allows me to ongoingly generate myself as an empowered patient in the face of no treatment, shoddy care, no cure, fatigue, further diminishing capacities…one of my empowering conversations I have with myself is KISS MY ASS IT’S GOING MY WAY! And that includes my view of time.

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My guilty pleasure and how I manage my work week…

Sunday, November 8th, 2009 by annemarie

It’s sunday night, and time for my guilty pleasure. If I can ( read the Bears are not playing a night game) on sunday night I will watch Extreme Home Makeover at 7 pm. Not only do I find it inspiring, it gets me out of any pity party that may have crept up inside regarding my own condition! Most importantly, the show gives me permission to cry. And cry. and cry. I allow myself to be moved completely and thoroughly by the heart of the families, the thoughtfullness of the details in the homes by the design team, the faces and comments of the volunteers, and the new futures now possible for the children in the families they support. I believe having this release once a week allows me to manage my emotional space/atmosphere throughout the rest of the week. It’s an occasion for me to let her rip!

People are always asking me how I get so much work done, have so many ideas and projects happening AND deal with my own condition every day. Here’s the other big secret: I manage my rest. I set aside 3 consecutive days off and I limit my social activities on those days as well. From Saturday at noon til Tuesday at noon, I am off. I give myself permission to do nothing if I need to. In my experience, the more rest I get the more fertile my mind is, and the easier it is to get through the other 4 days of the week. Often I will dive in a book or 2, sometimes movies, in the fall it’s football, or I might just cook and sleep letting my mind float with out direction. Without fail during these down times I see the answer to a problem, create a new angle or classroom for my seminars or invent a new tactic to compensate for my diminished capacities. If I cheat myself, and I schedule a meeting, or see too many people and end up talking too much, basically forgetting the purpose of being off is to rest and rejuvenate: I am a resentful creature. Do yourself a favor regardless of the state of your health: begin to schedule your rest. Hold that time as sacred. Not just sleeping 8 or more hours a day, but having down time. Nothing time. It will give you everything you need.

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