Make friends with time - intro to Productive! Magazine #25

I’d say the time is the main character of the newest issue of our magazine. It might make some of you think funny as many people find the time their enemy. Perhaps I’m one of them… at times :) Time as an enemy is a source of guilt, stress, misery and hurry (thus - mistakes). We are sure we have to beat the time or at least fight with it constantly.

Is there a way to make the time a friend? I am sure there is. Read the interview with Andrea Feinberg and then the articles by Grace Marshall and Sara Caputo and look for the ways which may work for you.

Some people fight with time because they want to slow it down and squeeze more things into a 24-hour period. Some of us don’t like time as it is at all and keep waiting for tomorrow to be better and more suitable to introduce the changes. Anyways, maybe it’s a good idea to see time as a friend, as a tool, as bag full of opportunities…

Time as a friend

Time can be your ally, really! All you need to do is start treating it like that. You can play with it, try new things, like it. Note, though, that your friendship could be even better if you think realistically and get to know “your” time well. Your time is your time - 24 hours a day, 365 days in a year and your possibilities are limited. Like in every friendship, you need to accept some of the weak sides and constraints of the other person and not try to force them to take too much on them.

Time as a tool

Time can be a nice tool to work with and to experiment with. Last week I prepared a document for my employees. It was our company’s strategy for the year 2015. It worked really well and motivated the Nozbe team because I wrote it in a form of a note from my diary written on 31 December 2015. I presented my vision as actual facts. As one of the guys said, “It didn’t sound like a plan but a sheer autosuggestion - it all has already happened… although in a year from now ;)”

Time as a source of opportunities

Think life is too short to do stuff? What if you think the other way round? Life is too long not to… :) Anyway, time offers you multiple opportunities. Some resolutions will require minutes or hours, and some - weeks or months. But time is there for us. For you. Why don’t we take what we need. It’s worth to partner with time to achieve what you want and what you need. Reasonably. With no stress, guilt or anxiety.

Let me summarize with a quote from a TEDx speech by Nigel Marsh:

“…the small things matter. Being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your life. With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your life.”

If you decide to make friends with time read more articles about life-work balance, focus and magical 15 minutes in the issue 25 of the Productive! Magazine

Question: Are you fighting with your time? Would you be willing to change it?