Is there anything more stressful than time? It may be cliché to say that time is the only thing we can’t get back, but the saying has merits.
My days are usually eventful and filled with many different type of things to do. Most of them are time sensitive. Meetings with clients, releasing projects on deadline, responding timely to prospects, taking care of emergencies and problems for clients. The list goes on and on.
I find myself feeling that stress quite often and have lately begun to wonder what I can do to mitigate it. One of the things I have found is the more I focus on time, the more stressed I get.
Our society evolves around time and being on time. And there is something about time that creates a natural stress reaction. To mitigate this, I am on a crusade to try and think a little less about time. Trying to go about my daily life without constantly being focused on what time it is.
Instead of focusing routines around specific times, such as get up at exactly 6am, be at the gym by 6:45am and be sitting in the office at 8am, I want to try something more flexible. I believe these kind of (excessively) self-imposed schedules can do more harm than good, especially if you have a stressful work environment (which I clearly do).
So try it with me. Reduce the important of time in routines, while still of course continuing to value your own and other’s time highly. Just go with the flow as much as you can, create meaningful routines without constantly needing to be minding that clock too much.