Time. What a small word loaded with a variable punch. Some hear the word and cringe. Others look at it as a way to stay on track and live in an organized fashion. Still others may not be impacted at all. So what makes this teeny-tiny word so powerful? Why do people have such strong reactions to the word “time”?

One reason that I believe is that “time” has become another man-made entity. What I mean by this is- we’ve created the stress and placed it upon ourselves. Over time (no pun intended) we have evolved in such a way that “time” has become almost god-like in our culture.

• We’ve got to make it “on time” for an important appointment so we rush through traffic.
• We have “no time” for ourselves and our own health and wellness
• We are constantly glancing at the clock to find out “what time it is”
• We punch in and out of work, all based on the “time clock”

With information coming at us like a meteor, technology advancing at the speed of light, and the expectation that we can socially connect with anyone around the globe at any hour of the day- no wonder we are overwhelmed, stressed, exhausted, and out of time! We are constantly “on”.

I’d like to encourage you to think back to what I like to call, the olden days. Before electricity, before technology, before social media and networking. People back then lived, worked, and slept by the rising and falling of the sun. And going way, way back- before I can even comprehend or know what they were doing- I bet they didn’t have clocks, wall calendars, and mobile devices alerting them to what time it was all day long.

Time is a man-made concept. It has been brought on by us, ourselves. We “have no time” because we created the idea of time. What would life be like without time running our lives?

Well, my friend and colleague- Nat Couropmitree- set out to investigate this concept. I still absolutely love what he did but have not been brave enough to try it out myself… yet.

He shared this with me and I share it with you now as this really is a way to let go of “time” and its control over us. Nat and I were talking one day and he told me a little bit about himself and what he had been up to. We were discussing various holistic and self-care topics and somehow got onto the topic of “time”. Nat told me that he recently was trying something new.

He was covering up all of his clocks!

What??!!?? You might be thinking- “That’s crazy! How could he do this?” And I know- I’m right there with you… as I shared above, I haven’t had the guts to try this myself yet. I guess I am still a slave to the clock…

So back to Nat… So he covered up his clocks- on his computer, on his desk, in his office, and all over. And what he did was he set a timer. So let’s say he wanted to write an article for his blog- he’d set a timer for one hour and when the timer rang- he stopped what he was doing and moved on to the next task.

Then maybe he’d set the timer for an hour and a half, for a coaching call with a client. Well- again- when the timer was up, the call was over, and it was time to move onto the next task.

This process is dually beneficial. For one, it relieves us of our “slave to the clock” mentality. And it allows us to be fully present, fully mindful of the task at hand. During that one hour- instead of looking at the clock every so often to think about what you have to do next (which is a distractor and can slow you down as we talked about in previous posts)- you are 100% focused on and involved in the activity you are doing right in that moment.

How wonderful! Such a fabulous time-saving tip. And such an experience that is brave, new, and bold. This is so good for your health. Gosh, I really should try this one day. My difficulty is I like the way I do things now and am so comfortable with my routine that trying Nat’s technique scares me a bit.

What about you? Will you try this technique? Post a comment below to let us know how it goes for you! And please, share with us any of your time-savings tips as well as we all learn and grow from each other.