Time Management – Mental

Effective time management starts with realizes what you spend time thinking about.

• Do you dwell on possible outcomes of a future unknown event?
• Do you rethink decisions that you have already made or have occurred in the past?
• Do you worry about other people think about you?
• Do you dwell on a situation that made you angry?

Each time you think about a single thing you expend one mental cycle. A mental cycle is just a measurement of an unspecified amount of time. Most people spend multiple mental cycles thinking about the same thing over and over. When someone cuts you off in traffic your initial response of being angry expends one mental cycle. If you think about what you would yell at that person if their window was down expends a second mental cycle. If you think about the situation again when you pull up to the stop light next to them, that’s a third cycle. All of these cycles add up to time you spent thinking about a situation that made you angry. Learn to spend your cycles on concepts and brainstorming that will benefit you.

Create a list

Write down constructive concepts to spend time thinking about. Having a specific list helps you recognize when you are spending cycles thinking about things that are not on the list. Think about each item as long as you want but try not to repeat the same thoughts. If you find yourself repeating in your head, try to look at it form a different angle. Or maybe pause from that topic and think about the next thing on the list. Once you are happy with how you thought through that topic, scratch it off the list. Here are a few of the things that are on my mental list to think about.

• Is there any place in my budget that I can cut expenses?
• How can I generate more income?
• What can I do for someone else today?
• What new topic should I look up on youtube to learn about?

Thinking about each item may generate new items or give you something to research.