Managing time – My experience

[benewb]

While making lists and prioritizing your time is one thing, it’s another to avoid the voices inside your head calling you to distraction. For me, that same magical hyper focus that helped me survive school and work assignments I’d pushed off to the last minute makes it feel like you can just escape into a different time zone and do that one more thing.

Friends used to have a term they called “Ben time” since I was always running right around 15 minutes late. It wasn’t as much that I was running behind, as much as I was always getting ahead of myself – especially, ironically, if I had some extra time on my hands because I was ready. What I would often do is think, “Hey, good job, I’m ready, I’m going to do that one thing!” And one hour later, immersed in that one more thing, I’m later than late. More often than not, during long layovers, I’d hear my name over the airport intercom and rush to the get on the plane while the engines were running. I remember one time getting up especially early for a flight to meet a new client, and just spacing away the time – to be jarred back into linear time by a frantic call from the client contact.

But avoiding the one more thing, getting where you need to get to, is having one more thing, not one less.

The illusion is that you get it done now, to check it off the list. But not only do you not get that done, you’re now behind on the next thing.
And people are mad.

It’s a vicious cycle, and one that only be broken cold turkey.

Not one less one more thing. No more one more things.

A good tactic for reminding yourself is setting alarms and making appointments with yourself.

The discipline of recognizing time is a general theme for ADD. When you have the ability to sometimes thwart the space time continuum, and taste the delicious and chemically addictive reaction of disaster thwarted we easily forget all the other disasters that led to an equally distinct amplitude of trough.

And recording those mundane details helps keep your brain and spirit free to roam the way you’d really like to, and minimizes the disruption – in your own life or others.

I personally find that in the years since I stopped wearing a watch and started relying entirely on my smartphone I’m actually more attentive to time. Having a watch on was no real guarantee that I’d lose track of time. I would often believe that I was okay because I’d see 15 minutes left on my watch before I needed to transition and think I was okay. Only to discover an hour later that I’d completely list track of time.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by benewb.

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