Time Design: Making the most out of our only human resource

In the last few weeks I was lucky to join seminars about time quality (opposed to time management) and mindfulness that re-inspired me to integrate these techniques into my everyday life. On top of that I got hit by a private loss that made me realize that time’s not endlessly provided, but rather a precious, vanishing gift.

So I've been musing back and forth on this quite a while and came to these conclusions:

While the buzz is about making robots more human-like, it seems that humans aim to become more robot-like. We squeeze more and more productivity out of ourselves as if we could compete with the speed of industry machines.

Secondly, there seems to be a “rebound effect” of productivity: The term known from green engineering tells us that whenever ecologic gains such as energy savings are made by technical improvements, consumers will keep wasting the same amount of resources exploiting the freedom they’ve won. And so whenever we improve ourselves with new time management techniques, we’re actually not freeing up our time, but rather our days get cluttered again with new tasks and occupations.

We’re getting more productive, but we don't get to live happier.

Time design, as I call it, is about using the only true resource we have more consciously. It’s more about experiencing and using time differently than “managing” it or making it more “productive”. Last not least it may bring us closer to a true time prosperity, a new zeitgeist in which people do the right things in the right way and, simply put, live happier lives because they do not drift away in the tides of time and stress.

Live your goals

„80% of my daytime is work and then I‘m too wasted for the rest“. This is what I took down some weeks ago in my notebook. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? But life sure means more than work. Have you thought lately about what you really want to achieve, what‘s really important to you?

On that same day, sitting outdoors in the last rays of late summer, I noted down (once more) the important categories of my life that actually deserve equal attention: body, soul, relationships, love, development (the last one actually a handsome replacement for work).

Since then I’m trying to to set quarterly goals in each of those categories and approach at least one of those goals per week. Stick to that list and it can direct your thoughts and actions to the holistic life you deserve.

Free your intuition

There’s an overwhelming trend to “search inside yourself” for your own truth of life, but actually what surrounds us has a huge impact on how clear our thoughts can actually get. I didn’t get inspired to write this article during my busy city life, crammed in tubes, trying to make it to the next meeting…

Instead I sat on the grass in the sun and felt at peace with myself, intentionally breaking free from a regular, stressful working day. Whenever I wander the hills or e.g. take a time-out in a monastery, I‘m able to reset my mind, take a bird view on life and occasionally get to these breakthrough, eureka moments that shape my future thinking and living.

The cleaner the air, the cleaner the mind it seems — so expose yourself more often to settings that calm and inspire you. You cannot free your self while living in an everyday prison that doesn’t allow you to look at the horizon.

Quality over quantity

Have you ever been more or less happy because you’ve accomplished 3 or 10 to do’s? By the end of the day, what makes you feel satisfied really? Oftentimes, we feel like we’ve floated through a stream of requests and tasks — but by the end of the day we wonder if we have done anything profound at all.

Look at your life, year, month, day as an opportunity to learn & develop and make the right steps in the right direction. It feels much better to consciously work in your strengths or improve your weaknesses than ticking off a list of meaningless items. It feels better to spend more time on fewer things that have an actual purpose and are done with diligence and beauty.

Ignore, delegate, decide

Whenever I try the Eisenhower Matrix I end up with 90% of my tasks in the top left quadrant: “important and urgent” — to me this tool brings no more clarity at all. Instead I suggest to rethink what you actually allow to enter your schedule in the first place and filter out what occupies your day…

Ignore: Recently I got some mails from people that hardly introduced themselves, but wanted to “get in touch” about something, somehow. After we spoke it became clear there was no real follow-up or deeper value to it. So get sensitive about what you actually need to react to at all, incl. unsolicited mails, social media distraction or reading each and every news on Slack that won't affect your very own job scope.

Delegate: Yes, you’re the best and no one else will deliver your god given quality! But hey, this is… pretty arrogant? Leaves others no chance to learn. And drowns yourself in a stream of tasks that others could do as well. If you have the opportunity of having a great team with you, delegation is your great filter number two.

Decide: I’ve you’re receiving requests of any kind do not make them into a discussion longer than necessary. Do not research more or cause new to do’s for others as long as the issue has no high complexity and/or priority. Just take (or delegate) the decision and make progress.

E.g. emails: I look at them quickly and decide immediately. Newsletter or pure info copies? Delete. Meeting requests? Schedule. Work requests? Move to the priority list. Don’t put anything on hold or into thematic folders — you’ll never re-open them anyway — just get mails done in one sprint session.

To save you some time for now, I'll separate this article and publish part two here soon. While this 1st chapter was about “spending time right”, the 2nd will be about effective time and time hacks.

Thanks for the read!