Time Warrior–Defeating Procrastination
I just finished the book “Time Warrior–How to Defeat Procrastination” by Steve Chandler and wanted to share some of my takeaways.Non-linear time management is a commitment to “keep the mind clear and empty of all future considerations.” by making one of these three choices for every task that comes into our lives:
1) Do it now
2) Place it in a time capsule
3) Make the decision to NEVER do it.
That way, your mind is clear and free of stress and worry-two types of thoughts that drain your energy and decrease your productivity.
Many time management programs focus on creating a huge list of tasks for the future and is overwhelming resulting in procrastination.
Anxiety often comes from picturing the future. Putting things off increases that anxiety.
Most people spend too much time thinking and then compound the problem by studying their feelings that come from that thinking. All of the time spent on thinking and feeling could have been spent on action.
You’ll never find time, it must be made in your mind–by slowing down. That is: be ruthless in sticking to your schedule, cutting out the unnecessary, and not letting the calendar abuse you, or people use you.
We often let people clutter up our day because we have too much desire to please them.
Chandler believes that people-pleasing (answering emails the minute they come in, taking every call, fulfilling every request) is the greatest time waster. This interrupts us pursuing our dreams. There is no time left for achievement and creation.
When we perceive that we are overwhelmed by outside events (or options, or tough choices, or situations, or ways of making money, etc.) it is not the event, but the thought that overwhelms us. The brain doesn’t react to events, only thoughts and feelings. Only believing the thought can produce the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Life is ours to be created, not by reacting to what we are subject to from others.
You have to fight against interruption and distraction and bring a gentle sustained focus to your tasks.
Stop stopping. Starting then stopping, then starting again is a great time waster. We need to stop stopping.
The less we stop, the more space we open up for ourselves, the more problems we solve. The more problems we solve, the faster we achieve our goals.
Voltaire–“No problem an withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” The key is making sure that you are not interrupted so that you can apply sustained thinking. Most of us are too busy doing things that don’t move us toward our goals.
One hour of uninterrupted time is worth three hours of time that is constantly interrupted.
How much uninterrupted time are you willing to carve out for yourself each day?
Situations cannot directly cause a feeling until the brain interprets the situation and creates a story. We can only be overwhelmed by our thoughts, not by the situation.
You can find out more about and read a portion of the book on Amazon at this link, or by clicking on the cover at the left.Time Warrior: How to defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-commitment, broken promises and chaos
We use our imagination to overwhelm ourselves rather than create our lives.
The best futures are created through action in the present moment.
The mind imagines the worst for the future and makes future tasks, even small ones, seem big and difficult. That leads to procrastination. Taking action, even a small action, is the answer. What needs to be done now, in these next three minutes? That approach will lead to getting 40 tasks accomplished in two hours.
No one stops me but me.
You don’t have to feel like doing something before you can do it. Take the action and you will be surprised that the motivation will show up too.
Creators create their day based on their irresistible future. Reactors are reacting to the opinions of others all day.
Time management is problem management. When problems arise, we should capture them. When you write a problem down, you remove the emotion. Once on paper, it is no longer living in the back of your mind. When it is in the back of your mind, it effects all areas of your life because the problem stands between us and what we are doing. The problem isn’t solved yet, but you have freed your mental energy.
A significant part in problem solving is completing the project. It takes more energy and drains you more when you have unfinished business than to spend your energy completing the tasks of a project.
At the end of the day your incomplete items will leave you feeling tired.