Time Well-Spent: Meditative Insights For Time Management

So let's get started!

I've talked about the Pomodoro time management technique before and this is one of my favorites.

I use it myself and I'm going to be honest,

I have times where I not use it and I have times where I use it.

And I know life is much easier when I use the time management technique,

The Pomodoro time management,

Where you divide time in 25 minutes and then you have a five minute break,

You work another 25 minutes and you have another break for five.

After four times you have your big break and then you go back to it.

What helps to why this is great is because you divide your task in smaller bits so that your load becomes not like this overwhelming project you need to do,

You know.

It's a great perception of your day.

My advice to actually my students is always to,

You know,

When they're writing their thesis or dissertation,

Make your task smaller chunks of half hour tasks,

So that you don't start your day with I have to write my complete dissertation today.

No,

The next 25 minutes you just need to do um you just need to write that paragraph and the other 25 minutes you just need to look for articles about your subject,

For example.

But then what's really important according to Steele 2007,

You need to set specific measurable goals.

If you want to be productive,

And I shared before that sometimes people think time management techniques will help you with procrastinating behavior.

If you want to combat procrastinating behavior,

The task that you need to do according to Steele 2007 is to set specific measurable tasks.

And also this author agrees with break the task into smaller manageable goals with clear deadlines.

And the Pomodoro time management technique enables this,

So that's great.

There are also time blocking techniques.

Chu and Choi in 2005,

They found in their study that time blocking or scheduling specific time slots for tasks enhances productivity and minimizes procrastination.

In my calendar I usually even block free time so that,

You know,

It doesn't get distracted with work.

That really works well for me,

That's my own personal experience.

But they found that you get this sense of accountability.

And then I want to talk about the two-minute rule.

I love this one,

I forget it actually sometimes.

Fogg in 2009 found that the two-minute rule is excellent in overcoming procrastination.

So the rule suggests,

As the name suggests,

If a task takes less than two minutes,

You should do it immediately.

Has anyone ever done the two-minute rule?

I think people use it when they drop food on the floor,

So if it's between two minutes you can eat it.

I didn't find any recent studies that suggested this is a very great tool.

Sometimes when I divide my tasks,

Normally they do take more than two minutes,

So I find this a little bit tricky,

But I love the two-minute rule when I think about it.

And we're going to do this later in the meditation.

That's Siroy and Fickel in 2013.

They found that the role of mindfulness and self-compassion help in combating procrastination.

I actually incorporate mindfulness and self-compassion in almost all of my meditations,

Because I find that it's a great tool for overcoming procrastination.

I incorporate mindfulness and self-compassion in almost all of my meditations because of this.

Deep breathing,

Becoming more aware,

They all are great for self-compassion and develop self-regulation skills.

Cultivating self-compassion actually allows you to have kindness to yourself,

And when you have a setback you can forgive yourself and you do your work better.

So time management techniques,

They can be effective with procrastination,

But it's not the one main aim.

If you're interested to learn more about how time management can help with procrastinating behavior,

I suggest you go to my profile and listen to my other talks about procrastination.

And now back to the time management techniques.

I've talked about this one before,

The Eisenhower matrix,

Where you have four components.

One is urgent and important,

So you do these tasks you do first.

The second one is not urgent but important,

So you need to schedule this one.

The third one is urgent but not important,

Perhaps you need to delegate this one.

And the fourth one is not important,

Not urgent.

For example,

The urgent tasks,

You feel like you have to react to these ones.

Particular emails,

Phone calls,

Meetings and tasks that are time sensitive and you have strict deadlines.

The problem I have,

And I think many people have with this time management technique,

Is that at some point they think everything is an urgent matter.

So if you want to do this time management technique,

You need to be able to make differences between what is urgent and what is an important task.

So an important task can be where it really contributes to a long-term goal,

A thing you have to do in life,

Part of your business,

Of your life vision,

For example.

What they also wrote,

And I found this one funny,

Is that the not urgent task,

Like sports and learning,

Creating,

Bonding with people,

You should schedule in your calendar as not important,

Not urgent.

And I was like,

Huh?

But for me,

This is urgent as well.

So that's why I struggled a little bit with the Eisenhower matrix,

But I think it can work great for people who have a clear overview.

And the next one is the Kanban board.

I've never heard of this before I prepared this event,

This talk.

It's a Japanese word meaning a billboard or a signboard.

And the idea is that you make a visual board with three things.

You have one row with to-do,

The other one in progress,

And the other one is done.

And so you can use,

For example,

Post-its where you write all your tasks and you place them when you of course finish them in the to-do,

Or when you're busy with it,

In the progress,

And when it's done,

You place it in done.

If you Google it,

You will see beautiful pictures of how this can look amazing.

But this is really for people who like the visual aspect of it.

My downfall with this one,

The Kanban board,

Is I would become too perfectionistic.

I want to create perfect little post-its and make all these beautiful colors and color-code it.

But luckily you also have software that supports the Kanban method,

Like Trello or the Kanban tool,

So you can go online and use this.

But yeah,

You need to see if not everything is imported indeed.

And even for the Pomodoro time management technique I mentioned earlier,

You also need to clarify if a task is important,

Yes or not.

And my tip for that is to actually practice that in meditation.

You will feel in your body what is more important than the other.

You can feel resistant that you don't want to do it,

That is also allowed,

But you also know deep down which is urgent,

Which is,

Yeah.

And if you have real difficulties with that,

Get an accountability buddy.

But for the Pomodoro time management technique you have loads of software.

You have the tomato timer,

You even have the actual tomato time,

You have the Pomodoro tracker,

The Pomodom app,

Great tools you can use.

And I have a couple of other examples I want to talk about.

So my other time management technique is the 1-3-5 rule.

This is one I use personally.

Every day I think about one big task I really need to get done,

One big one,

Three medium tasks,

Medium,

Not two,

Not four,

Not five,

No,

Three,

And five really tiny tasks and I plan them.

I do this because I'm also a mother,

I have a busy household and sometimes I write down,

For example,

Empty the bin,

Right?

That's my small task so that I also feel really productive,

If I've at least done that.

That's a little trick I do.

So that's the 1-3-5 rule.

You also have the 80 minute thing and this is something I sometimes suggest to my clients.

So start your day by spending five minutes on going over your daily schedule where you take one minute break every hour to see your progress and what's left to be done and then end your day with a five minute review.

Because sometimes I have students who I work with when they have to make a to-do list,

They get stuck and they even procrastinate by working on their to-do list the whole day,

Right?

But if you start with five minutes in the morning,

I need to do this,

This,

This,

This,

And then every hour a minute of,

Okay,

Check up,

Am I doing it?

And then the last five minutes,

How was your day?

It can also be part of a gratitude thing,

Actually.

And this is what I suggest to my students or clients,

But it is something I've been using indirectly as well,

Because I begin my morning with a morning routine and I end my day with an evening ritual.

Another thing is the 4D system.

Delegate,

Delete,

Do now or defer.

And this is again all about prioritizing,

Right?

What can you delete?

What can you delegate?

What can you do now?

And what can you defer?

So think about what is a favorite time management technique of yours and why and what is something that will not work for you?

That's also fine.

And you have the,

I have three more things I want to get into before the meditation and that's the seven minute life,

Where you spend seven minutes in the morning to plan your day and seven minutes before you go to sleep to review your day and prepare your plan for tomorrow.

So that's similar to the previous one I talked about,

The 18 minutes.

So by this time we are all learning that actually all the time management techniques,

They all have their similar intentions,

Right?

They either try to prioritize tasks or divide time for certain tasks.

So you also have to do it now,

Same as a two minute rule.

So if it takes less than three minutes,

Do it now.

Same thing.

And the final one I want to talk about and it's just a silly name,

It's the eat that frog.

So do the most important task in the morning.

If you eat that frog in the morning,

Everything will be easy to accomplish right after.

This is not something I usually advise to my clients because I normally would suggest start with a five minute warm-up task and then do the really big chunk.

But that's just personal gains.

I don't have any research,

Well at least I didn't find any research that would suggest which technique is better than the other.

Unfortunately there isn't a specific article about that.

But these were all time management techniques I talked about.

So a little bit of a summary.

We talked about setting specific goals,

Use time blocking techniques,

The two minute rule,

Practicing mindfulness and self-compassion.

We talked about the Eisenhower matrix,

The Kanban board,

I don't know if I pronounced it okay,

And Pomodoro time management technique,

The 1-3-5 rule,

10 minutes,

The 18 minutes,

The 4D system,

The 7 minute life,

Do it now and eat that frog.

So those were a lot of time management techniques and I think if you're ready we can start a meditation where you can sit with a straight spine,

Slow down a little bit,

Where you place your palms on your lap so that you can turn inwards.

If you want you can close your eyes and take a deep breath into the nose,

Hold it for a couple of seconds and breathe out slower than your inhale.

So join me in breathing in through the nose,

You pause and you breathe out through pursed lips,

Breathe in through the nose,

Pause and out through the mouth,

Final deep breath in through the nose,

Pause and breathe out through the mouth.

And for the next breath you can take a real deep in-breath through your nose and you pick your shoulders up and when you breathe out through the mouth you drop your shoulders.

So you breathe in through the nose and breathe out and drop those shoulders.

One more deep breath in and drop into that body.

And I want you to open your eyes and reflect on your surroundings and how they impact your ability to concentrate.

Research from the Journal of Environmental Psychology actually suggests that a clutter-free and organized workspace promotes better focus and productivity.

So can you look at one thing in front of you and focus on it?

Focus on the shape of the object,

The texture,

Is it big or small,

Is it light or really dark,

What color is it,

And you are paying great attention to this object.

Excellent.

Now I want you to focus on your hearing.

Drop the object and just listen to any sounds which are nearby.

And if you can't hear anything,

Drop the object and just listen to any sounds which are nearby and other sounds which sound far away.

Maybe you hear something in the distance.

Excellent.

And let's focus on an other sense of touch.

Maybe your hands feel your clothes or you feel how you are seated in your chair.

Maybe you are feeling cold or warm.

Or just perfect.

And I want you to embark on another sense and that is of taste.

Taste.

Taste.

Embark on another sense and that is of taste.

Do you taste something in your mouth?

Maybe that last cup of tea or coffee.

Let's go to the final sense of smell.

Can you smell anything?

Great job.

And I now want you to close your eyes again.

Take another deep breath in and breathe out by letting it go.

And I want you to think of one big task you really need to get done.

What is an urgent task with a deadline that you really need to get done?

If you feel a resistance,

Ask yourself is this because of procrastination or something else?

Then think of three medium tasks.

You don't need to overthink it,

Just three things that quickly come to mind.

Not for long.

Not four or five,

Three.

And then think of five small tasks you need to do.

Visualize yourself doing these small tasks.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

Feels great,

Right?

And as we are navigating our journey to navigating time and figuring out what time management technique works best for you,

I want you to think of three small tasks that you need to do.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

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And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

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And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

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And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.

And maybe you can even do them under two minutes and see yourself finishing.