What is a Time Abundance Mindset?

Do you want help with time management? David did. He admitted it, but he could never make the time to do anything about it.

I see it regularly, yet I am still amazed by it. I see people who are involved in many, many different roles and they always seem to have time for each of these roles. They have time with their family and friends, and themselves.

I also see the opposite. People who are involved in far less, yet are always really busy and struggle to find balance in their lives.

The small percentage of people who have more time have a natural sense of time abundance. That is, they know they can create the time to do what they want. And these people get help with time management.

What mindset do you think most people have?

You guessed it. A sense that there is never enough time and you don't know how to get everything done. You feel overwhelmed and at times out of control.

David is a case in point. He was referred to us so we could help him with creating some balance in his life. He has been missing his KPI targets at work. His health is poor. When we spoke to David he was interested - but, guess what?

He wanted help with time management. He wanted the outcomes we spoke about, but did not have time to see me. He was too busy. A month later. Still too busy. Another month, still too busy. Maybe next month might free up a bit he said. David has been living this life for over 5 years!

What do you think he will say next month?

It is much easy for us to look at this situation from a different perspective and see nothing will change for David until he does something differently.

What about you? Are you a "busy person" or an "I'll make the time" person?

A "busy person" has a sense of time scarcity, through which they see everything. It doesn't have to be that way. It is actually a defense mechanism - a way to try to protect yourself from disappointment and stress.

But this scarcity mentality usually does exactly the opposite. It creates more stress and disappointment, by focusing on what you can't get done or what you still have to do.

When you see life through a time abundance mindset you know you can find the time to do what is really important.

Where do you stand on the time, scarcity vs abundance continuum?

Michael Erwin is a Time Creation Expert and Time Coach. He offers Free time management resources.

You can find more time management articles and time management tips at http://www.time-management-central.net

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Time Management Tips - Avoiding Overwhelm

By Sharon Teitelbaum
I left a meeting with one of my mentors recently with a page of fabulous next steps for my coaching, workshop, and book business. There were probably 10 actionable items noted on the page, each one of which was the tip of a project iceberg. I left the meeting in full overwhelm. It's not as if I'm underutilized these days!

I took the page back to my office and put it on my desk where I could see it while I did other work. Now and then I would look over at the page and feel awful. Before the afternoon was out I realized a few things about me and that page.

First, I realized that I wished I was "the kind of person who" could knock off some of those items in no time flat. Someone who could devote a couple of hours one evening and crank out high level results for, say, half of the items on the list. And then do the other half the next morning. But I am not that person, and I felt diminished by my less than favorable comparison.

Then I realized that:

I had completely imagined this brilliantly efficient person who could work oh-so-much-faster and better than I can.
As soon as I had invented her, I went into a compare-and-despair routine, which did not support me to take any action.
Since I had invented this character who was a better me than I was, I could also make her disappear. So I made her disappear.

At that point, my resistance fell away, and I could finally take on the list for what it simply WAS: some potential projects for 2006. I stopped being overwhelmed.

Now I could actually do something useful. My first order of business was to identify which projects I wanted to take on, period. And then to prioritize: which tip of which iceberg would be first in line. And my second order of business was to schedule some project time into my calendar for Iceberg #1. At this point I became energized.

Very often, what's at the heart of feeling overwhelmed is resisting your limits. A panicked lawyer client with pneumonia, sick children, and a huge trial coming up expected herself to pull all-nighters as she had when she was in college. Once she accepted that she was no longer as "invincible" as she had been in her younger, simpler circumstances, she was able to get over her panic, plan how to use her limited resources strategically, and get going.

What personal or structural limitation are you resisting? If you can accept the real limits of your circumstances, chances are good you can move beyond feeling overwhelmed and get back to work, which is where the breakthroughs happen.

A steady diet of feeling overwhelmed is not good for you.

Copyright 2006 Sharon Teitelbaum. All rights reserved.

Master Certified Coach Sharon Teitelbaum is an authority on work life balance and an expert life coach to busy professionals, high achievers, people at midlife, and working parents. Her book, Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: Restoring Work-Life Balance, is a strategic, tactical guide for maintaining a sane and balanced life, distilled from her experience coaching hundreds of people. A sought-after keynote speaker and workshop leader, Sharon has addressed such diverse audiences as Harvard Medical School Faculty, financial advisors at Merrill Lynch, and Mothers' of Twins Clubs. She has been featured in national publications including The New York Times, Working Mother Magazine, and Forbes.com. Sharon works with individual coaching clients throughout the US and internationally by phone, or in person in the Boston area, and always offers an initial consultation at no charge. Married for thirty-plus years, she is the mother of two fabulous grown-up daughters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/