Time & space navigation
What is it?
Why is it that some people are naturally organised, tidy and on time whereas others find it difficult to manage how many commitments they can realistically take on, end up rushing to meet deadlines and live in what appears to be an untidy mess?
I have been studying how different personality types approach time management and how they organise their living and working spaces – and it is a fascinating subject. It appears that certain personalities are naturally inclined to work steadily and step-wise towards their goals, like to have things organised and decided, and hate rushing around at the last minute to get things done. On the other hand there are people who like to live in a more flexible, open-ended way and who get quite energised by the buzz of making something happen with little time to spare. These people can find it constraining to have to work in a highly structured and non-flexible environment.
Most of the time management books and training courses are promoting time management methods that appeal to the first type of people – i.e. those who are already predisposed to be organised and time-conscious. In a sense they are preaching to the converted. The more flexible, spontaneous types are therefore left un-catered for. They are “wired up” differently and therefore need a different approach that plays to their strengths and natural abilities, not one that plays to their weaknesses.
A new approach for spontaneous, flexible people – “time and space navigation”
The very words “time management” just don’t do it for creative spontaneous types. For them, time is not something to be “managed” – instead it is something to be explored and played with. It can also be difficult for them to understand time separate from the environment and space they are in – time and space seem to be connected somehow. Hence my calling this time and space navigation – it is a more flexible, explorative way of looking at how we use time and our environment.
Playing to strengths
My workshops and 1:1 training and coaching are designed to play to people’s strengths. I have heard many stories from spontaneous types, saying how they have tried really hard to follow traditional time management techniques and when they fail (which nearly all of them invariably do), they feel like failures and get despondent. Another problem people often cite is that they tend to do endless cycles of “blitzing” and relapsing.
What I do instead is coach people to find a system that is compatible with their own “wiring” and not foreign to it. I suggest solutions that are therefore more creative, flexible and fun – solutions that fit better with their natural style.
Remaining realistic
Some people prefer to focus on patterns and meanings, rather than separate facts and data and they prefer to look to the future, at what might be possible – rather than be tied to what was or what is happening now. If they are also spontaneous and flexible, then these people can have some problems dealing with some stark realities of time commitments. They can be fairly unrealistic with what is do-able in a given period of time and underestimate how long it takes to get something finished. They can be very good at devising clever, creative plans for organising themselves but find they are too complicated to do in practice. Part of my training is to get people to understand that they have this tendency and work out interesting and supportive ways to deal with it.
Having a bigger picture but also being able to break it down into actionable chunks – “life navigation”
My training sessions that incorporate life navigation involve people developing a compelling future which represents where they want to be in their lives by a certain date. This future has to be compelling and exciting so that they can motivate themselves to take action. Some people can be so overwhelmed by the big picture and all there is to do, that it immobilises them from knowing where to start and knowing how to keep the momentum up along the way. I therefore teach them how to keep the motivating big picture in mind but at the same time have a plan which breaks the big picture down into manageable chunks and do-able actions. In my experience, GANTT charts and traditional project management tend to be a turn off for creative, flexible, spontaneous types! Instead I suggest methods that are creative and flexible but also simple and realistic.
Training workshops or individual coaching available
I can offer training workshops either half day, one day or two days, depending on the depth and breadth people would like. These can be done for attendants from a variety of backgrounds or for people from one organisation. Self-employed people, in particular, are often keen to help themselves in this area, especially if they don’t have the luxury of other more naturally organised people to assist them in their work.
One to one coaching can also be arranged for people wanting to concentrate on a tailored solution just for themselves.
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