Confessions of a time bandit

Time and I are having ourselves a bit of a bumpy ride lately.

As in, it seems to shape shift. And I keep trying to hang onto it.

I had a colleague last year tell me that she was working on getting out of “time poverty.”

I know what she means, you guys.

As the business grows, it seems that EVERYTHING shape shifts. I can’t drink as much beer. I have to eat greens every day or I start feeling weird. I go to bed earlier. I understand relaxation, massages, and naps to be required, not luxury. Pleasure isn’t just when I’m not working… it’s these tiny moments when I am working, using my whole being in a way that feels really good.

But this time thing, you guys.

This time thing is so dang weird.

People’s Exhibit A: I time everything I do. I have a digital timer that I set. When the timer bings, my only duty is to ask myself, “do I keep going, or block out more time on my calendar on another day?”

I cannot tell you how strange this is for a free spirit like me. But I am experimenting, as I do, because time is my next adventure. And I am an adventurer at heart.

People’s Exhibit B: I now ask myself, “how long do I think this task will take?” Then I do the task. Then I notice how long it took, and see how close I got. I used to write this down, until it felt a little too writing-everything-downish. But I can now tell you, it takes me:

  • 10 minutes to write an autoresponder
  • 3 hours to get most of the way through a SFD (sh*tty first draft) of a sales page that I have done messaging pre-work on
  • 30 – 45 minutes to craft a promotional email
  • 45 minutes to write a JV promo copy
  • 1 hour to write a preview call opt in page

I now ask my team to block out those chunks of time in my calendar, so I actually have time to do them.

“Making time” is now a physical, not theoretical, act.

People’s Exhibit C: News flash! “Thinking” is an activity. I used to combine Thinking with Writing… but my New and Improved Relationship With Time has showed me that this is not the most efficient way to batch my tasks.

Some of my best thinking happens early in the morning, when it is quiet.

But my best creative thinking comes when I give myself lots of time to play with ideas – like several weeks – before I ever sit down to write a single word.

The other trick here is that Thinking likes to happen when I am outside or moving my body. I do most of my creative work when I am not working.

Either way, I need to make room in my days for outside time and Thinking and Doing Nothing (another place where my Thinking gets done).

People’s Exhibit D: I’ve got Julie Morgenstern’s Time Management from the Inside Out in my bathroom. Never in a million years would have expected it. But I’ve gotten some good ideas from it. It’s been quite useful.

One of my clients in Write Club recently asked if I had any advice for how to manage time better.

I thought of what my friend KB told me, “We don’t manage time, we befriend it.”

While the timers and the books and the structures aren’t usually my style, what I’ve discovered is that in a strange way, they are actually liberating.

They are my training wheels to a life where time IS my friend, even as life has gotten more complex.

(Flashback: At my old job, I used to come home in the middle of the day for lunch, and have enough time to nap under my apple tree in warmer months).

I used to try to manage time by not having very much to do. That was my first attempt at spaciousness.

But now, I suspect that the real game is being up to big things, and setting it up in such a way that 80% of the time, you feel spacious, in flow, and free.

Curious for your thoughts – what’s your biggest challenge when it comes to time? Let us know in the comments below.

 

Mighty thanks to “noqontrol” flickr photostream for the melting clock photo.

Stella Orange is a copywriter who helps people put their work into words. For eight years, she wrote email campaigns that resulted in more than a million dollars in sales for her clients. In that time, Stella also taught popular marketing writing workshops to business owners on both sides of the Atlantic -- and a few in Australia and New Zealand. In 2017, Stella cofounded a creative and consulting shop offering a complete and slightly unorthodox line of business advising and marketing services. She continues to write copy and advise clients on customer delight, how to resonate with more sophisticated, discerning clientele in your marketing, and just who, exactly, your ideal clients are. Stella is the founder of Show Up And Write, a weekly writing group and writes a letter every two weeks or so (here’s the sign-up). She lives with the Philosopher and their two kiddos in Buffalo, New York, a fifteen-minute bike ride to the Canadian border.

10 Comments


  1. Patti

    Thank you for this very “timely” post, Stella! I love your philosophy! 🙂

  2. Jennifer

    Thanks for sharing, Stella.

    I’m ALWAYS experimenting with time.
    Loved reading how you’ve been experimenting lately.

    Here is a link to a good practice u may like + another to a fun look into someone else’s time ~ JBlue 🙂

    (1) A Golden Pause (Take Five)

    by Richard Carlson, excerpt from EASIER THAN YOU THINK

    http://tinyurl.com/njn8dwx

    (2) MY LIST: KARL LAGERFELD IN 24 HOURS

    http://tinyurl.com/nwdvl3r

  3. Linda Ursin

    My biggest challenge when it comes to time is a certain someone butting in with stuff that needs doing, when I’ve already planned to do something else that day.

  4. Lyn Niemann

    I am one of those that separates creating from active working. Creation (or playtime) can come over a period of time by working a problem out for a solution or it can come from a sudden burst of inspiration. For a while, I went through this phase were I would get a flood of ideas every time I took a shower! Can’t tell you how many times I ran, dripping wet, to get it all down on my laptop while wrapped in a towel. I think it was a combination of being relaxed and the time factor – showers only last so long, right? Once I connected the dots – that I create best while in relaxed spaces condusive to exploration – I began creating open spaces in my schedule and my shower idea parties ended.

  5. Cheryl Binnie

    LOVE this. Time is absolutely one of my biggest challenges. I still have a bit of a pre-teen “don’t tell me what to do” attitude that comes up when I try to tell MYSELF what to do, which causes all kinds of procrastination.

    And I’ve been trying to keep a sense of freedom in my life for so long that I feel like I also have a “this doesn’t feel like freedom” program running the background, even when it’s not really true.

    So I love that you’re looking at time as the next adventure! I’m totally gonna jump on that train.
    xoxo!

  6. Pam Brooks-Crump

    Ohh the gorgeousness of time, Stella O!

    !st thing- watch your words……I watch mine. “I have plenty of time to do everything that I really want to do” substitutes the other….”not enough time blahblahblah”.

    2nd I set my cell phone alarm a few times a day to remind me to enjoy one minute or so of silence. This minute is so expansive and enjoyable that is kills the delusion that we do not have enough time.

    3rd, something I learned from a presenter at a networking group(not mine by the way!) and that was “the 80/20 rule applies to time as well as the other ways that you have heard it used.

    Take 96 minutes (20 minutes of your day) to focus on one activity. So today for instance, I dedicated 96 to my physical body including a shower in the middle of the day, I dedicated 96 minutes to my newsletter- it actually took 146 minutes!

    There is the great principal of focus going on here. no emails, FB, no laundry, no cleaning the kitchen unless it is TIME that I have dedicated to that activity.

    I am not so sure I like the 80/20 rule for other things, but this really does work for me.

    And now it is time for my 96 minutes with my family- uninterrupted, focsed and sweet!

    Be well, Stella!

    Much Love,

    Pam

  7. Elizabeth Locey

    I recall you bending time almost exactly 2 years ago (in Earth years). It’ so fun to see where your new experiments in this areas! Sending you big LOVE!

    xoxo,
    Elizabeth

  8. norah

    I love what you says here, my job is about time, I organize life of people, I set priorities and give the information about the time in the future that something will be done (sample: you will have a baby in October 2016…)astrology is about timing, when to do the things in the easy way, with less effort and the best result or why don’t do what you think now.
    We don’t have the habit to look the time as something elastic….
    as you says to sometimes we need to think to something during weeks and wait the best time to realize.
    thanks to share your toughts and your knowledge with us. Norah

  9. Aurora

    In her course on “Seeing My Time,” Marydee Sklar points out that the problem with time is that it is intangible, we can’t physically see it. Finding tools to help make it more tangible like timing things and mapping it out visually is a great step. Still working on that myself! 🙂

  10. Susan Best Jones

    I am finding time closing in on me. I wake most mornings at 4 am to think about projects I am working on and ideas for doing a great job. Thankfully I can usually stem this and get back to sleep. My days are just getting away from me, working too many hours and not getting all the things done that I need to.

    Time management is BIG on my list. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, I love how you think Stella and you have inspirer me these last few years to really get my business moving. So I will try and follow your lead on this as well.

    Thanks,
    Susan

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