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Time - it is your most fundamental resource for just about everything. Which explains why the whole world is crying out for "More time!" - particularly when "there isn't any." Every strategy for success - whether in sports, science, or anywhere else - sooner or later catches a case of "We need more time," "Give me just a minute," "There's not enough time," "We just don't have the time (for this)," "Time is running out," "Can we have more time?"

Man's Search For More

Man's search for more time has resulted in an entire industry of time keeping and time management. Time "keeping"? Are reports of "more time" myth or fact? The answer is at the same time "Yes" and "No" - which can be confusing. Yes, you can experience time more. No, there is no such thing as more time. You already have all the time there is. No-one has yet figured out a way to manufacture time (or to keep it).

Because time is so fundamental, it is sometimes overlooked and under-appreciated (not unlike the air we breathe). If it didn't exist, it would need to be created. But time being a most democratic and fair institution that benefits everyone in equal measure, regardless of geography, age, gender, possessions, IQ, religious and political views, lifestyle, merit or nationality, it makes you wonder whether it could be done. It would have to overcome ridicule and opposition, to say the least. Fortunately, time doesn't require our consent and is faithfully there for us to receive each new day.

Does Time Really Fly?

Time is frequently described along the lines of wasted, lost, found and saved. "Time flies" and "I don't have the time" - how many times have you heard it said, or said it yourself? This language would have you believe time is a commodity that can be stored, kept, transferred, set aside, bought and sold. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We have arrived at this curious view of time by our habit of chopping time into chunks of time - years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds and fractions of seconds. The smaller the amount of time, the more precious or important it becomes. It's the old forest & trees thing all over again. We don't see the forest for all the trees. We don't see time for all the chunks of time. There will never be enough time to do everything, but there's always enough to do the most important.

Curse Or Gift?

Is time a curse, or a gift? How you view it doesn't impact time itself, but it significantly impacts you and your quality of life.

My own views of time changed radically during my early travels in Africa. I was waiting at a bus stop for a bus that was several hours late. I was upset, angry, impatient and stressed. Everyone else had a smile on their face, in conversation, reading or writing or otherwise "busy." It was my first inkling of time beyond society's attempt to manage, control and own it. It took many more years to truly experience the gift of time. The more you experience time as a gift, the more will be gifted to you. For extra inspiration I recommend the exquisite short movie at http://www.thetimemovie.com/

Time is perceived as to exist in three dimensions - the past, the present and the future. To access the past we use our memory, the present opens through knowledge, and the key to the future is our imagination. (You remember breathing yesterday, you know about breathing now, and you imagine about breathing tomorrow). A first step to experience more time is recognizing there exist different modalities to access time, and to choose wisely. To remember the past and imagine the future can  only be done at the expense of the present. For more time, spend more time in the present, less in the future, much less in the past.

On a lighter note, time is simply nature's device to keep everything from happening at once. Is it not cool that we receive time in a neat succession of new mornings!

True Time Management Equals Value Management

In truth, time management is value management. The door to more time is more time for the things that are truly important, to you. Traditional-conventional time management is all about getting more done in less time. The rush for getting more done in less time, pushed by multi-tasking to new heights of sometimes grotesque outcomes, mainly blurs the distinction between the efficient and effective and between the urgent and the important. You could be super-efficient urgently running South, but it would not be effective if your life's purpose is North. As surprisingly as it may sound, the key to more time is less time management. The way to more time is through the experience of time - which can only happen in the now. Make the focus of your time management to spend more time in the present - on people and things present.

5 Easy Steps For More Time

• Don't do well what needn't be done at all.
• Spend your time on love - things you do with love, or love to do, or for people and things you love, etc.
• Live consciously in the present time, as often as possible.
• Add a sense of urgency to everything you do. Time is infinite, but there is no way of knowing when your time is up. Do not move along as if time were not a factor. You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish in a short time, if that's all you have.
• "What is the most valuable use of my time?" Stop and ask the question several times a day (or several times a week). It may be your best question ever.

They asked thousands of American residents to recall every minute of a day. The awesome (interactive) graph shows the results, compliments The New York Times. Click on the graph on the right to view it in full size and cut results in a multitude of ways, "Everyone", "Men", "Women", "Employed", "Unemployed", various age groups and more.

Had they included your every-minute-of-a-day, would the graph look different? Let me know!

This post is about timeboxing, which I highly recommend. In the past I used it only intermittently, but found it to be so effective I now use it routinely. I learned about timeboxing while preparing for Christmas, usually setting aside 12 hours for the task, which for me involves both the making and shopping of gifts. Because Christmas comes with a deadline that will not be moved, it didn't take me long to understand the need, and benefits, of timeboxing. By late summer I decide the type of gifts I'd love for each person. Next I order the materials needed to make the gifts, as much as possible online, or I reluctantly hit the shops. By taking advantage of my flexible schedule I avoid rush hours and waiting in line and, given my dislike of shopping malls, I'm usually in-and-out quickly. It leaves me with about 10 hours to actually make and wrap the gifts. I also use timeboxing when confronted with a project or task too big to complete at once. I might not be sure where to begin, or it seems it will be a while before I get to finish a meaningful chunk. Or maybe it’s something I resist doing for some reason, hence the temptation to procrastinate. In such cases I revert to timeboxing to simply jump and just do it ... for a while. I usually allocate 30-90 minutes tops, let go of any particular accomplishment and simply get going, regardless of where and how far exactly. An example for using this approach is when writing a new article or a next chapter in a book. Sometimes it just flows and an article completes itself in a single stretch, but most of the time it's hard labor performed in chunks over multiple sessions. Timeboxing helps to jump into the thick of it and frees me to set aside any worries about effectiveness and so forth. Then I simply repeat the process until the work is done. To start with enthusiasm, even at the risk of achieving nothing, beats procrastination every time.

Accomplish More Than You Hope For

As described in an earlier blog post, action may result in zero accomplishment, but the absence of action guarantees it. What’s more, action is also a great anti-depressant. Fill your moments with action, and there will be little time left for worry. Once begun - you have now overcome inertia and are focused on the task - action creates its own dynamic. You might well end up working (much) longer than you originally intended. Hours may pass before you even feel the desire to stop. The result often baffles expectations. You end up accomplishing more than originally hoped for.

A Good Repellent Against Procrastination & Perfectionism (These Two Often Go Hand In Hand)

Timeboxing increases the likelihood of getting things done. The box takes away the room for procrastination. It forces you to focus on the best you can do with what you have where you are. You'll soon abandon perfect for good is good enough - a good thing, since perfectionism often creates the need for timeboxing in the first place. If you're working in product development or similar where moving a deadline is seldom an option, product features might be entirely determined by the time available to implement them. If you get behind, you cut the nice-to-have product features.

Regardless of the exact nature of your work, chances are you are practicing timeboxing on and off, too, yet might be unaware of its true potential. If so, read on.

7 Steps To Transform Helpful Into Powerful

While timeboxing by itself is a helpful technique, we live in a competitive world where helpful does little more than score points. To actually win the battle for peoples' hearts and minds, and wallets, you need more than helpful - you need great personal power. Timeboxing can make the winning difference. For it to do so, it must first be transformed from helpful into powerful. This transformation happens when you integrate timeboxing with traditional time management systems and, implied, with your vision and goals. I created the graphic at the beginning of the blog post to help you with the process.

Step 1: List your Intentions - your goals and what you'll do after you reach them. As shown in the graphic, my goal is the achievement of financial and geographic freedom. Whatever you intend to do after your goal have been achieved, be sure to also somehow reflect it in your present goals, work and life. Waiting for tomorrow to be happy would only put you at risk of waiting forever.

Step 2: List the Means you have identified and decided will get you there.

Step 3: List your Resources, starting with yourself.

Step 4: List the Activities you have decided to do, specifically, to get you to your goals.

Step 5: Decide how you allocate your time among your various resources. Time happens to be the one resource not shown in the graph. The step of allocating your limited resource of time to your resources, which all consume time, is akin to gardening where you would decide which plants to water. How you allocate your time is more important than how you allocate your money, for your time is finite. In the example shown, 54% of my (waking) time is allocated to the business directly (Clients & Marketing, and Develop My Offer), and 46% to my Self. 16% of Self time is earmarked for Self Development and Professional Mastery. Since these benefit my clients and business indirectly, it makes for a 70/30 ratio overall (70% business/30% self). With this I feel comfortable given my current station in life. Depending on your family life, career and business, your allocations will differ substantially, of course.

Step 6: Translate your allocations into a graph that will guide you when you plan actual activities and desired outcomes (in the example show below, on a weekly basis). It ensures your daily activities stay in alignment with and in support of your true goals and intentions for life.

My example assumes 17-hour days. Time boxes (the amount of time allocated), once decided, are rigid to a point. By contrast, the placement of time boxes can be flexible, depending on the nature of your work. On weekends in particular, the placement and sequencing of time boxes may change depending on weather and such :-)

Step 7: KIS (keep it simple)! Apply the Pareto principle throughout (the 80/20 rule).

There is no such thing as more time. Time is something none of us has figured out a way to manufacture. We already have all the time there is.

So how can we have more time? You can experience more time, that's how! It's the only way to have more time, and really a two-step process. Step One, begin to be intensely grateful for the time you have, or the time you're given, depending on your world view. It will change how you value the time and therefore, your experience of it. I guarantee it. Because you'll value time more, as if by magic, you'll experience it more. When people are asked what they are most grateful for in life, “time” is rarely mentioned. It's hardly a surprise then, that many people can only think of time in terms of never enough. It needn't be so. For inspiration, watch the excellent little “The Time Movie” available online for free NSA (no strings attached). Step Two, manage your time less. It's not a misprint. It might sound like an oxymoron, but you'll be amazed. To get more time, manage it less. You see, not only do we take time for granted, we also have a habit of chopping it up - into years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds. We also concern ourselves with the past and future, sometimes to the point of forgetting about the present. But time only exists in the present (or rather we only exist in the present, but let's stay on track). As a result of our chopping time into pieces, and of not living in the now, we have kind of lost our sense of time itself.

Another way of valuing time more is to have less, but I don't wish this to anyone. When time runs out it's like when the cookies run out. The last remaining cookie in the jar suddenly appears more precious than it was when the jar was full. Value time more, and manage time less, starting today. Keep in mind, "time is a great teacher, but it unfortunately kills all its pupils" (Hector Berlioz).