In the apparently time starved modern world, we desperately try to make time for everybody and everything. We become so busy trying to fit it all into our lives that we don’t make any real attempt to evaluate whether these things or people should be getting our time at all. So, as you might well imagine, our schedules become even more crammed and the cycle continues. Before long, our lives are dedicated to the meaningless and the monotonous, at the expense of our joy and happiness. To beat this, I am going to recommend that you add something else to your schedule – personal thinking time.
Personal thinking time is just one critical aspect of remaining focused and organised. My FREE Report - Improve Your Foucus; Increase Your Productivity will teach you more.
Not only should you add personal thinking time to your schedule, you should give it a high priority. Because when you think effectively, you will save time. Personal thinking time allows you to sort your priorities, ensure that you stay on top of them and thus reduce the amount of time you waste on things which don’t add value and; you don’t really want to do anyway.
3 Uses for personal thinking time
There are many ways in which you can use personal thinking time to add value to your life while reducing the time required to do so. The following are 3 of the best uses:
1. Time to ponder
It is amazing how many people live their life without ever thinking about it. They would love to improve their life but they don’t know how because they don’t really know what they want. They can’t evaluate how they are living their life because they have no idea what they are trying to achieve.
If you want to improve your life and, who doesn’t? you need to understand who you are, what you want and, how you are spending your life. The more time you dedicate to this, the better your understanding will be and, the better your decisions will be.
If you are not living the life you want, it is not because you are not doing enough. It is because you are spending too much time doing things which add no value to your life, at the cost of the things which can bring you greater joy, happiness and wealth. You must regularly take time to ponder your life so that you can make the right decisions. These decisions will save you time, energy, money and a whole load of stress.
The following are just some of the things you should be pondering:
This element of personal thinking time allows you to understand yourself better, make smarter decisions, reduce time waste, reduce stress and increase your confidence and happiness. There are few better ways to spend your time.
You can't improve your life unless you dedicate time to think, plan and organise
2. Time to play
When you spend time doing the things you love, you are happier and healthier. It helps to take your mind away from work and anything else which may be causing you problems.
Everyday life can reduce your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy. You need to make time to build these energy reserves back up. Taking time to play and enjoy yourself is the perfect way to do this.
An easily overlooked benefit of play time is that by distracting your conscious mind, your subconscious mind can get some uninterrupted time to work on your problems. You will often find that when you return to your problems, you have some great ideas for how to overcome them. It is a magical form of personal thinking time where you don’t even realise that you are thinking.
Personal thinking time is just one critical aspect of remaining focused and organised. My FREE Report - Improve Your Foucus; Increase Your Productivity will teach you more.
3. Time to do nothing
Taking time to be still allows your body to recover from its exertions and your mind to organise your thoughts. Letting your mind wander aimlessly often leads to some wonderful ideas. You just follow where your mind leads and you can discover ideas which you would never have encountered.
When faced with serious challenges or problems, your mind needs time to think through the possibilities. It is best to allow that time. Of course, if you are constantly rushing from one task to another, all your mental energy is focused on trying to put fires out. But long-term thinking is too difficult in these situations. When you allow yourself to relax and let your mind wander, there is no pressure and so your mind is free to find its own way and consider all possibilities.
This approach frequently yields great results. Its why some of life’s greatest ideas have been found in unusual places such as in the bathtub, on the toilet or in Einstein’s case, while daydreaming in a patents office.
Taking the time to think about what you really want from life is the first step in getting organised and focused. The Modern Professional's Guide to Organisation and Focus will teach many more great strategies.
Conclusion
Long-term thinking is what helps us build the life we truly want. We find the opportunities that we need and make the big decisions and commitments required to make radical changes in our life. This kind of thinking requires personal thinking time. You can’t think long-term when you are under constant pressure. That is why one of the most important things you can do is to consistently allow some personal thinking time in your life. You will see the benefits of doing so.