When you have goals you are working toward, time management is not just about choosing what to do, it is also about choosing what not to do.
Before I created a time management systemca that is still top secret (sign up to the newsletter for news around that), I had a little trick I would use: I would write down what I wouldn’t do the night before starting a new day.
The things I put on the not-do list would typically be things like:
- I will not check email before 12am
- I will not work on project x, y or z
- I will not visit any social networking sites in the morning
- I will not have an unhealthy breakfast consisting of sugary foods
The first thing that will come to some people’s minds is that when you phrase it the way I phrased it, it is bound to fail. (the demand resistance effect being one of the reasons and secondly, some say our subconscious minds disregard qualifiers like ‘not’ and just capture the topic of the sentence).
I’ve had varying results though. The most success I’ve had is with deciding not to work on certain projects. Why do I do this in the first place? If you have a lot of projects the mind wants to tend to all of them and that can get overwhelming. Deciding what not to work on can be very freeing. If you don’t make this decision, you may frequently experience yourself feeling ‘ought-should-could’ sentiments, trying to keep as much balls in the air as you can.
I tried two other variations and both resulted in interesting results.
First, I tried phrasing the ‘not-do’ list differently. Instead I committed to ‘deliberately procrastinate’ on certain things for a part of the day. For example: “I will procrastinate on checking my mail for the duration of the morning”. This worked well for me, because while I was keeping myself from doing certain bad habits for a portion of the day, my mind wouldn’t resist as much because it knew it could get round to those things later in the day, in a guilt free manner. When I would get the urge to something prematurely I would just remind myself to procrastinate. Strangely, this worked better for me than telling myself not to do something.
Another variation is to write down what you would like to not do, then simply forget about the list. Then check at the end of the next day what your results were. This time you’re not consciously trying to will yourself into avoiding things. This experiment is well worth trying out, the results may surprise you. Even in failure, it breeds understanding into our daily habits. And habits are important to be conscious of, because they determine so much of the quality of our day-to-day experience.
The Not-Do list on a grander scale.
While the not-do list ideas mentioned up will have varying mileage depending on a case by case basis, I think the following idea can apply to just about anybody. And that is to write a Not-Do list for life, or for your goals, or for your career and business. The choices we make that effect our long term career can’t help but limit what we can’t choose. Choosing is sacrificing. Having freedom, is having the ability to choose beyond automatic conditioning and circumstance.
To frame this in some practical examples:
You probably feel like there are some directions you would enjoy pursuing. Those ideas may even be nagging you from time to time. Or you might be trying to pursue two or more things at the same time.
When I knew no better I decided to enroll in construction engineering with the intention of progressing toward becoming an architect. It was an idea I had since childhood (among other things). The road would be very long and the road to being very good at it even longer. That is the kind of investment that would take a few decades. I didn’t enjoy most of what I was being taught, so after two years – even though I had okay grades, I decided I would not do something I wasn’t entirely passionate about. I also knew that even if I would pull it through it would mean I wouldn’t be able to do other things in the fashion I wanted to do them. I simply dumped the idea of being an architect and it has never nagged me again.
In my business, I have been more ruthless about the things I shouldn’t be doing . The things that take me a lot of time to do but I’m technically capable of doing. But just because you have the skills to do something, doesn’t mean you should do it. My productivity has literally jumped through the roof when I let go of activities that I decided to no longer do. The only thing that kept me from doing those activities were limiting ideas like: I know I can do it, I’m talented enough and somebody has to do it. Those ideas can sink you.
Do you have any of these thoughts in your head that say you should pursue something, or that you should do certain things in your business/life, simply because you are capable and may be even talented at? Are those things dragging you down? Letting them go might free things up in ways you never imagined.
Yow! I’m such a do-it-yourself type that I only get help when it’s something I can not do, like serious doctoring. You’ve just made me realize this is one of my major time-clutters.
I just discovered time clutter the other day. I was getting clear in my head on what I need most to change my life and getting rid of clutter was a biggie. I assumed it was space clutter. Lo and behold, I have time clutter–just too much crap taking up my time!
So here you are telling me how much more productive you became when you dumped the time clutter. I shall consider this a tap on the shoulder from the Universe saying, remember what you discovered? What have you done about it?
Heeding this tap will prevent a brick upside the head later on down the road when I’ve forgotten to do a darn thing on clearing out clutter.
Sheesh, could this comment be any longer? I’ll shut up now.
Thanks for the heads-up!
Hey Karen, thank you for your comment, it made me smile. Time-clutter that is a great way to describe it!
good thoughts Peter! (or not-thoughts LOL)
they also say to focus on what you want…buy many people don’t really know what they want. so the technique then becomes focusing on what you don’t want, and asking what is the opposite of that?
I say use whatever method gets you to where you want to be! Some experimentation is always involved…
As you can see by my blog, “not-doing” is a big part of my thing LOL
Mtn Jim
Totally, totally agree with you on this one Peter! When I’m actively engaged in things I can tell I literally have this –
“I don’t have time to piss around with this shit”
attitude. It’s only when I’m kind of waffling around, don’t have a compelling project and don’t know what I should be doing next that the detritus sneaks its way in. What works for me is staying really, really busy with something I’m excited about. And I’ve let go of the guilt that I “should” be doing that nonsense anyway. Best case scenario is when I pay someone else to do it though.
Thank you Jim,
I agree, experimentation is the way to find out what works. I think a lot of people, myself included never stop to think that we can have other people do the things we think we need to do ourselves. Haven’t dabbled much with outsourcing yet myself at this point but it’s definitely part of my road map in my businesses.
Peter
Hey Jacqueline,
Thank you for introducing a new word to my vocab (detritus) and leaving us with a disturbing visual
I couldn’t have said it better though.
Well, I didn’t mean literally not going to the bathroom! ROTFLMAO
I meant busywork. Which I do think of as detritus because it’s like the sand that fills up the jar which should be filled with the “big rocks” of what’s really important to you or your life.
BTW, are you going to do a “beta test” of your TM system?
I am going to do a Beta Test pretty soon. I’ve penned a report explaining the system a few days ago, I’m now doing revisions + editing before I run a test group.