This article is Part 3 in a series of articles developed to help you maximize your time and efficiency for a better work-life balance. We started by explaining the difference between what we need and what we want and creating a wish list of goals, then prioritizing tasks and improving productivity. The next step in Time Mapping is to step back and reimagine your schedule with new, more effective, processes.
Time is Finite
No matter how we shuffle our blocks of time, a day is just that: one day. There are twenty-four finite hours in our daylight and night time. Even if we were using another clock or calendar design, one day is and always will be the time it takes for the earth to revolve around itself.
Imagine a small wooden box with a sliding lid to seal the contents. Within the container, there are fifteen building blocks of various shapes and sizes. Taking them out. When arranged in a specific configuration, the blocks fit perfectly back in the box. What if a wooden block equaled time used in scheduling, each one symbolizing an appointment or task in your day: the triangle for a haircut, the square for shopping, one of the rectangles represents travel, another rectangle, a friendly game of soccer. The box is the container of our twenty-four-hour day.
A Box of Time
Pretend there is now a container that holds a total of twenty-four equally sized blocks—two layers tall, three rows of four. Each unit (block) represents one hour and all twenty-four blocks collectively represent one day.
Remove one block and chop it into smaller blocks to indicate minutes and reinsert the set into the same spot. Or envision a box of seven larger blocks to represent one week or even thirty smaller units as the month of June. It all still fits in the box. Regardless of how you divide, subdivide, or stack the blocks back together, the container symbolizing the specific period of time must remain its same size.. We can control the cube sizes and quantities (tasks and time frames allotted to each) in a manner to still fit within
the container.
What is One Word that Describes the Right Amount of Time to Do Everything You Need to Do?
The word you choose will live at the core of your belief system and help you make better choices. You are influenced by what you have, feel, see, current knowledge, and experience. What words did other professionals share with me describing how it would feel to have the right amount of time to get things done? Here are just a few:
- Balance
- Peace
- Happiness
- Calm
- Love
- Relief
- Ecstatic
These feelings are the reward for prioritizing your activities or tasks.
Making a Commitment
Ask yourself these three questions to understand the relationship between what you want, what you need to obtain it, accepting your value or level of urgency, and whether you need to change it based on current circumstances.
Prioritizing is part of the Time Mapping process designed to eliminate guilt, decrease stress, and achieve more in less time. Defining the core beliefs about time can help you make better decisions and achieve a successful balance between your career and personal life.
Our next article in this series will help you learn how to divide your time into blocks, rearranging your tasks for the best possible outcome.
This article introduces concepts found in Dr. Ingrid Pyka’s books, “I Can, I Will, I am. Finding the Gift of Time, and Stop! Step Back and Grow.” Business owners and employees who want to improve their quality of life can use them as resources for learning simple time-mapping techniques.
(Edited by Jessica Olma)
