Home
>
Time Management
>
Low Tech Time Management

Low Tech Time Management

A simple kitchen gadget is transforming my life. I don't know why I never thought of it before. It wasn't my idea. It was a side comment made by nationally recognized life coach Alicia Smith, at the beginning of the Coachville teleseminar Understanding the Dynamics of Adrenaline Addiction. She said she "lives by timers."

It was at that moment I realized: I have no inherent sense of time. I'm geographically impaired too, but that's another article. I don't think I would have re-connected with just how non-time oriented I am without having had a sabbatical from a nine-to-five job.

Having a job, any job, implies a certain amount of structure. Maybe you have to be somewhere at nine a.m. You go home at five p.m. You have lunch at noon. You have a meeting at ten, an appointment at two. Productivity flows in and around your commitments. Remove the structure? Creativity ? and productivity ? pour out everywhere and become un-measurable and un-acknowledgeable. It's not necessarily that you're not doing anything. There's just nothing to gauge it by anymore.

As a kid, I'd spend hours in my room writing, painting or playing guitar. I'd forget to eat. I'd stay up until the middle of the night working on a project. When you don't have to work you aren't quite as constricted by the sixty-minute-per-hour agreement.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-high-ee), author of the book Flow and renowned architect of the notion of flow in creativity; asserts people enter a flow state when they are fully absorbed in activity during which they lose their sense of time and have feelings of great satisfaction. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. Time flies."

It sure does. But what about the sixty-minute-per-hour standard most live by ? the one used to calculate our paychecks and measure our productivity?

In an attempt to bridge the gap, I bought a timer. In fact, it is ticking as I type this. And it's not interrupting my flow experience of writing one iota.

This isn't the first time I've used a timer to accomplish a task. Jerry Mundis, author of over forty books of fiction and non-fiction, and creator of the knockout tape series, Break Writer's Block Forever, coached me through the writing of my first novel (two hundred and sixty pages) allowing me to write for only thirty-minutes per day.

When the buzzer went off, my instructions were to click File, Save and Close and forget about the book until the next day. This kind of structure didn't hurt my creativity one whit. In fact, combining this discipline with writing at approximately the same time each day caused my subconscious to cue up the next few scenes overnight. Every night I sat down, set the timer and turned the faucet on. The words poured out. When the time buzzed, I shut off the faucet. And that's how my first novel got written.

Another thing I love about the timer? It's a guilt-killer. If I only have an hour and a half to practice an instrument or write an article, when the buzzer goes off, I'm done. I don't have to think about it anymore.

Time is much too precious a commodity to mindlessly let slip away. So grab your PDA, phone or Blackberry and find the alarm on it. Or go to the kitchen and grab a simple plastic timer, give the dial a turn and when it buzzes, File, Save and Close and celebrate your sixty-minutes of creativity and accomplishments.

Helena Bouchez is a writer, musician, artist, teacher and former advertising agency associate technology director.

She has a B.A. in Art from Wayne State University and a Certificate in Business Administration from University of Illinois Chicago Center for Entrepreneurship, is nearly finished with her first novel tentatively titled, "Till you Make It", and enjoys playing bass guitar in all three of her bands. http://www.helenabouchez.com

efficient cleaning crew Northbrook ..

In The News:

Chinese hackers used Anthropic's Claude AI to launch autonomous cyberattacks on 30 organizations worldwide, marking a major shift in cybersecurity threats.

Apple's new Sleep Score feature gives you a rating for your nightly rest quality. Learn how to set it up on your Apple Watch and iPhone today.

Essential phone settings to enable before losing your device, including Find My network, location services and security features for iPhone and Android.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Cybersecurity research shows weak passwords remain a major threat, with simple patterns and number sequences putting millions of accounts at risk.

New Android malware BankBot YNRK silences phones, steals banking data and drains crypto wallets automatically. Learn how this advanced threat works.

FDA approves first human trial for Paradromics' brain-computer interface that could restore speech for paralyzed patients through neural technology.

New phishing platform QRR targets Microsoft 365 users across 1,000 domains in 90 countries. Learn how to spot fake login pages and protect your accounts.

OpenTable now uses AI to track your dining habits and share insights with restaurants. Learn what data they collect and how to protect your privacy.

Google's discontinued Nest thermostats still secretly upload home data to company servers despite losing smart features, raising serious privacy concerns.

New Android malware NGate steals NFC payment codes in real-time, allowing criminals to withdraw cash from ATMs without your card. Learn protection tips.

DoorDash confirms data breach exposing customer names, emails, addresses after social engineering attack. Learn how to protect yourself from scams.

Concerned about Google's AI scanning your Gmail? Learn how to disable Gemini features that access your emails, Drive files and Chat messages for privacy.

Google warns Android users about dangerous fake VPN apps hiding malware that steals passwords, banking details and personal data from phones and tablets.

Apple's digital passport feature lets iPhone users breeze through TSA checkpoints this holiday season using Digital ID technology at 250+ airports.

A new phishing scam targets family photos with fake "Cloud Storage Full" alerts. Criminals steal credit card information through fake sites. Learn protection tips.

South Korean scientists create ultra-thin fabric muscles that turn clothes into robotic assistants, lifting 33 pounds while weighing under half an ounce.

Archer Aviation has acquired Hawthorne Airport for $126M to launch an LA air taxi network ahead of the 2028 Olympics, featuring AI-powered eVTOL operations and next-gen aviation tech.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Fake AI apps disguised as "ChatGPT" and "DALL·E" are flooding app stores with dangerous malware that steals data and monitors users without detection.

Fake buyers demand specific vehicle reports from unknown sites to steal credit card information from car sellers, but warning signs can help identify these scams before paying.

Android users can now manage apps across multiple devices more easily with Google Play Store's updated remote uninstall button in the latest update.

NASA's Perseverance rover discovers shiny metallic rock on Mars that could be a meteorite from an ancient asteroid, containing high levels of iron and nickel.

Holiday scams spike during Black Friday and Cyber Monday as criminals exploit your leaked personal data. Learn how to protect yourself from fake stores and phishing.

Commerce Department proposes TP-Link router ban over Chinese security risks. Learn how this potential prohibition could affect your home network and devices.