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The Value of Time_How to Find More of It

3/8/2024

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The Value of Time
How to Find More of It​

by John G. Johnson
​

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We use the concept of "time" to order our experiences and actives. However, when it comes to using time to enhance productivity some seem to have trouble. "'If only there were more hours in the day!...'; 'I don't have 'enough time!...' ; 'I can't afford to waste time!...'" etc. are some of the phrases we hear when it comes to the relationship with 'time' and persons wanting to be more productive. We even use monetary metaphors to express time's value (ex. have enough, waste, time is money, etc.) So if time is the currency of today -or one of the currencies - then we have to "invest in" and spend it wisely!" That being said, humans have devised all sorts of means and methods to either: "'control,' 'keep,' or 'measure,'" - time so it works for them. Some of these methods have proven to be useful, and have endured throughout "time", so to speak.
 
One such strategy for "getting the most value out of 'time'", manipulating it to your advantage, is the Urgent Importance Matrix (UIM). The UIM goes by many names, for example, the Eisenhower Matrix/Principle, because some claim the 36th.US President, Dwight Eisenhower, invented this method for being productive with one's time in order to get the most out of their day, week, month, or whatever the time-schedule one works with. A 1954 Eisenhower speech also credits him for this quote. But he (Eisenhower) attributed it to an unnamed university professor: “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” So who is the source of the UIM? At this point, that's  not important.
 
What's 'important', and of value, are the results conducted on this popular productivity model. How to decide what's Urgent and Important versus a mix, which includes their opposite. The Results? "Our attention is drawn to time-sensitive activities over ones that are less urgent... even when the 'less urgent activity' offers greater rewards". Researchers call this the Mere Urgency effect! In other words, when you have a deadline, and no option for choice, that it must be handled, you get the task done, and do what you will with the other tasks such has setting them aside, or saying NO to doing them.
 
When it comes to time and productivity, it's not about wishing for more; it's about utilizing what already exists, appreciating and making each moment count - quality time. If you're always "busy", yet feel like you are just wasting your time, or have long-term goals, but can't give them neither the necessary time nor energy, or even have trouble delegating and/or saying NO to irrelevant tasks, then the UIM is perfect for you. It allows you to expand or contract time - well, the perception of it - to increase your productivity.
 
So how does the UIM work?
 
The UIM is easy to use. The four boxes are as follows:
 
Box 1 Not Urgent BUT Important (-, +)
Delegate
 
Box 2 Urgent AND Important (+, +)
(Do it immediately)
 
Box 3 Not Urgent AND Not Important (-, -)
(Say NO to task, or eliminate it)
 
Box 4 Urgent BUT Not Important (+, -)
(Decide when you will do it; commit it to your timeline to do at a later time)
 
Simply ask yourself the following questions and insert your tasks into their corresponding boxes and follow its instruction.
 
Box 2- "What's Urgent AND Important AND MUST get done?" Note the linguistic structure - the modal operators of necessity (Need to, Have to, Must etc.) and the linkage words "AND", "BUT" - at work here. It's important that they are used. Modal operators of necessity used imply a lack of choice; they motivate you to take care of the task. The linkage words used in the quadrant boxes and within the sentences balance and highlight the task's urgency, or lack thereof.
 
Box 1 "What's Not Urgent BUT Important?"
Box 3 "What's Not Urgent AND Not Important?"
Box 4 "What's Urgent BUT Not Important?"
 
We tend to generalize that "all" tasks are urgent and important; and that might be true. Yet, this is how we become "overwhelmed", concluding that everything is equal. Like all generalizations, these beliefs need to be challenged, tested for their validity. If unstable they'll fall into the appropriate category within the matrix. This is why the structure of the questions posed above, and how the linkage words are dispersed within each quadrant are vital.
 
Placing each task in their appropriate box has the added benefit of putting you more in control, extending time, making it (time) flexible to the point of giving you choices. So for those who say "I can't find the 'time'"(as if time got lost), the UIM will help you to find it - and an abundance of it, time, that is.
 
So..... "'If only there were more hours in the day!...'; 'I don't have 'enough time!...'", etc.[says who?]

​©2024 John G. Johnson All rights reserved! Subscribe to our mailing list for workshops, newsletters and events. Go to:  www.nlpsuccessbydesign.com
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This "Thing" called Writer's Block

11/15/2018

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​This "Thing" Called Writer's Block
by John G. Johnson

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​Teams of people tirelessly work behind the camera to breathe life into the TV shows we are addicted to each week. Or binge watch when the opportunity presents itself. Let's face it. If you own a laptop or TV then you have a favorite TV show. Perhaps several. (What’s one of mine? The Walking Dead). A skilled staff-writing unit makes up a part of this production team. Their job is to generate premises and break them into story beats. Then a member of this coveted staff writing team transforms all that information into a competent script ready to be filmed. Oftentimes he/she has less than a week to write the episode that hooks and hold us.
 
Most do an exceptional job. However, if a writer dares to complain to the show-runner that "writer's block" is preventing them from handling the job, the solution is simple: Writer is replaced or fired, and the task handed to the next writer in line. TV is a voracious animal. Consuming content is how it survives. It spares not the meek or whiny, whether in front of the camera, or behind it. It’s nothing personal. Just business.
 
But guess what? TV writers claiming to be in the throes of “writer’s block” rarely occur. The smart writers inoculate themselves against it; and if it (writer’s block) arises they have strategies to handle it. This then begs the question, “What are some of these strategies they utilize?”
 
Most important is the proper frame of mind. World-class writers possess the attitude, gained through experience, that their first draft is insufficient, and that their best is yet to come. This helps to keep their mind in top form. Flexibility, focus and confidence are other states of mind writers take advantage of when writing. These states allow surprises and discoveries, submerged within a writer's rich, deep, creative reservoir, to float to consciousness’s surface and reveal themselves.
 
Keen writers are also well aware that the act of writing is an output activity. This presupposes an input as well as a processing sequence exists before any official writing takes place. What subject matter is the writer writing about? What does he/she wish to accomplish with the piece? Etc. Having a direction in mind is part of the input and processing phase. It dictates what type of content the writer chooses to absorb, study, the information he/she gathers in order to explore, read, analyze etc. Law & Order: SVU, (their tagline: “ripped from the headlines!”) the longest running dramatic TV series to date – 20 years strong -, is a perfect example of gathering information – first – then working with it to produce a “work of art- that riveting episode.” Writers' get themselves into trouble when they violate this sequence.
 
The universe as it's constructed can give us a surprise, or two, once in a while. For a writer, those surprises are sometimes disguised as writer's block. When things seem to be going well, the writing is flowing, etc. writer's block can mysteriously creep into ones creative mind space, setting up residence, sometimes acting like a mind virus, weakening, if not crippling our progress. Things happen. It during these challenging times we are given the opportunity to learn and to grow.
 
Definitions vary as to what writer's block is. In a nutshell, it is a tense conflict between the writing task we wish to complete versus the excuses we tell and/or show ourselves why that can't happen. These excuses are just symptoms expressing itself in creative ways. For example, giving yourself so-called 'valid' reasons why your task must be put on hold; procrastinating, avoiding the writing assignment by ranking other activities as more important to do; allowing nasty internal dialogue or images to consume your focus that triggers a cascade of physiological responses, (sweaty palms, nervousness, etc). The examples are limitless...
 
So then what is writer's block from an NLP perspective? Hint...It's in the title. It's a nominalization, a fluid process that somehow has been transformed into a thing, immovable, stuck...a metaphorical "block" impeding progress. Looking from it from this angle then what needs to happen is to transform this static state back into a process, something moving. And that's where the fun and adventure begin.
 
Strategies to either eliminate, get through, above, below and/or around writer's block exist. Here are some more:-Get into a relaxed state and ask yourself, using a curious voice tone, "What is blocking me?" It's important to use the gerund "blockING!' It turns the noun back into a process verb. Also notice the present tense of the verb being used - IS.
 
Pay close attention to what emerges into consciousness via one or several of your modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory). What you become aware of, revealed to you, is the issue, or issues begging to be taken care of so that you can return to the flow writing state.
 
A variation of the above is as follows: Get into a relaxed state and ask yourself, using a curious voice tone, "What 'was' blocking me?" Just as above, it's important to use the gerund "blockING! This time the past-tense "WAS" is being used. This variation presupposes that the issue is now in the past. Sometimes that might solve the problem. Oftentimes not, what this variation does do is to put space between you and the issue, giving you another point of view in which to address it. (As the expression goes...Give me some space to xyz...). Again, notice what surfaces in one or several of your modalities.
 
Writing is a whole-brain process, meaning the creative as well as the analytical part need to work together...in the proper sequence. Suppress the need edit your work when completing your first draft. Just write! Errors and all! Put words on the page! When you enter the editing phase, that's when the critical mind is needed. Not before. You need something to work with...
 
Another advantage of putting words on the page - first - is that you give yourself the opportunity to unpack and reveal the deeper meanings hidden within the words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc. Take for example a simple sentence; "I watched TV last night!":...:

What kind of TV is it? How big/small? Flat-screen, or a box TV? Color or black & white?
Where were you last night?
What was the temperature like?
Were you alone?
Define "watched?"
Etc...

TV sit-com writer, Ellen Sandler, once said, "Writing is discovery on the page!" This requires that you are in-the - moment, the here and now. You need to put something on the page for this to occur. If writing begins by information input then - reading - is a great habit to get into. Books, (blog, e-book, etc.), aren't the only sources of information. There is also the environment in which you live, the people whom you interact with, places you visit, activities you partake in, the moments you experience, and so much more. There's also the world - within - you that you can read. As the NLP tenet states, "We have all the resource to affect change". Get to know who you are, your strengths, weakness, hopes dreams, pleasures, fears, angst, memories, desires etc. It's about utilizing opportunities to spur creativity and also to get ahead of writer's block.
 
So - "What did you think had stopped you from moving forward, or casting aside, what you had thought was writers block?" 


©2018 John G. Johnson All rights reserved! Subscribe to our mailing list for workshops, newsletters and events. Go to: www.nlpsuccessbydesign.com

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