How to Create From the Higher State of Consciousness

Neera

I have been writing on Medium for about ten months now. 

Once I exhausted my initial ideas I got interested to know how to create deeper and more engaging content.

I am particularly impressed with the work of Zat Rana, who has written articles that are amongst the most read on Medium. 

As I started pondering the question, as if by some serendipity, I was led to four levels of consciousness, a concept explained by Vishan Lakhiani in the book “The Code of Extraordinary Mind.”

Illustration by the author

Last week I wrote an article where I explained that at Level 1 your goals come from the culturescape. At Level 2 and 3, they come from within us but at Level 4 they come from a higher source — the Inspiration. 

Call it God, or Universe, or Supreme Being, or Higher Power, but Inspiration become our unlimited source of creation when we realize we are much more than just a body but a part of the “whole.” 

When we feel connected to every living being and become a part of the universe, Inspiration starts whispering to us. 

It talks in the form of intuition.

When you get an idea of a book in the shower, or a theory in the bathtub or a complete melody in a dream, it is not you, it is the inspiration talking to you.

You need to make sure you’re tuned in when Inspiration whispers because if you are not, it will go to someone else.

And if it finds you listening and up to the challenge, it will give you the intention (courage to act) and it will remove all the roadblocks.

That is the state you want to be as creators. 

I have covered these concepts in my previous two articles, Everything Changes When You Start Working From The Fourth Level of Consciousness and How To Make Sure You Listen To Inspiration When It Whispers.

Today I want to take them to another level.

The concept of Being.

Eckhart Tolle, talks about a concept called “Being” in his book The Power of Now.

There is an eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad of forms of life that are subject to birth and death. Many people use the word God to describe it; I often call it Being. — Eckhart Tolle

Being explains nothing, nor does the word God. But according to Eckhart Being has an advantage, it’s an open concept.

It is open because it does not reduce the infinite to a finite entity. God has been given several forms already. Each religion has given it some symbol, shape, or image. In many mythologies, God looks like humans.

But it is impossible to form a mental image of Being. Becasue “Being” is not a noun but a verb. 

So what is Being?

According to Eckhart, Being is your very presence. It is your true nature. Your own deepest self. 

It is accessible to you all the time. 

It is accessible to you now as a feeling of your own presence. Which is only a small step from the word “being” to the experience of Being.

It is a bit hard concept to understand. If you try to understand it with your logical mind you may not be able to. If you try to give it a form you will not be able to. Because Being can’t be seen it can only be felt.

That too when your mind is still and your intention is fully in the present.

Being is not only deep within but also beyond. It is in every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

Being is also the pathway to gain enlightenment. Enlightenment is not some superhuman accomplishment, it is simply your natural state in oneness with Being.

To regain awareness of BEING and abide in that state of feeling-realization, is enlightenment. — Eckhart Tolle

So Being is a state of connectedness with something big. Something that is essentially you and yet it is much greater than you. 

It is you your true nature beyond the name and form.

There is a connection between the concept of “Being” and the concept of “Four Levels of Consciousness.”

At the fourth level of consciousness when we feel connected to every living being and become a part of the universe, Inspiration starts whispering to us.

So when we are in the state of “Being”, we are connected to the Inspiration. 

Eckhart says it this way.

When your consciousness 

is directed outwards, mind and world arise. 

When it is directed inwards, 

it realizes its own Source

and returns home into the Unmanifested.

Eckhart goes on to explain that in this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake, fully present. As you go more deep in this state of pure consciousness, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that all thinking, all emotions, your physical body as well as the whole external world become relatively insignificant in comparison.

Yet it is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously thought of as “your self.”

That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably grater than you.

So Being is the higher state of consciousness and you can reach this state by simply incorporating a practice of focusing your attention into the Now.

By feeling your very presence. 

By connecting to your true nature. 

By connecting to your own deepest self.

By connecting to the universe. 

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I am going to stop here. I will be writing more on the topic. Stay tuned.

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If You Want To Change Your Life, Make Your Bed

Neera

Last weekend, as usual, my husband brought a pile of books from the library. Our household is an avid user of the public library.

Amongst those, one book with an interesting title caught my eye. The title was:

MAKE YOUR BED

A tiny book of mere 130 pages was written by Admiral William H. McRaven, a former Navy SEAL.

How come an admiral was writing a book on making a bed? 

It is a job of a mother. A habit I have tried to install in my kids. 

The introduction to the book turned out equally interesting. 

On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their commencement day.

Taking the inspiration from the university’s slogan, “What starts here changes the world,” he shared ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Navy career but also throughout his life.

And the first one of those was — make your bed.

Start Your Day with a Task Completed

Admiral’s argument is to start your day with a task completed as soon as you wake up. 

You may not think making a bed a task, but it is. Try leaving it unmade for a few days and you will see the untidiness it portrays. And it becomes much of a chore if you don’t do it first thing in the morning.

If you make your bed as soon as you get up, a sense of fastidiousness takes over and you already feel on top of the day. 

Admiral McRaven tells the story of when he joined the basic SEAL training in his younger days. SEAL training is the hardest military training in the world. For six months, the recruits are constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But the training also seeks to find those who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardship. 

Each morning, Admiral McRaven’s instructors, who were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in the barracks and the first thing they would inspect was recruits’ beds. 

The corners needed to be square, the covers tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack. 

It is a simple task, mundane at best. 

But why do it to such a perfection?

It might seem ridiculous, particularly in the light of the fact that they were aspiring warriors wanting to be trained in battle tactics, but there is wisdom in this simple act.

Incidentally, it is the first requirement of nursing training as well, an equally arduous profession. 

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right you will never do the big things right.

— Admiral William H. McRaven

In December 2003, U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein. He was held in confinement, during which he was kept in a small room. He also slept in an Army cot but with the luxury of sheets and a blanket. 

Once a day, Admiral McRaven would visit Saddam to ensure the soldiers were properly caring for him. 

He couldn’t help notice, with some sense of amusement, that Saddam didn’t make his bed. The covers were always crumpled, at the foot of his cot and he rarely seemed inclined to straighten them.

Admiral McRaven’s address to graduating class of the University of Texas went viral. For years he had been stopped on the street by people telling him their own stories, how they didn’t back down from the sharks, how they didn’t quit, how making their bed every morning helped them through tough times.

If by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

So, if you want to change the world, start by making your bed.

Here is Admiral’s whole speech if you want to hear about the other lessons he learned in the basic SEAL training.

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Do You Have Any Regrets

Neera

In 2009, Bronnie Ware, an Australian palliative care nurse wrote the second article for her newly formed blog, Inspiration and Chai.

The article was called Regrets of the Dying.

After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bronnie Ware began searching for a job with heart. Despite having no formal qualifications or previous experience in the field, she found work in palliative care.

For eight years she tended to the dying. Rather than feeling depressed and drained, Bronnie’s life was transformed. She was repeatedly offered lessons and life-changing insights while sitting by the bedsides of dying people as their carer and listener.

In her blog post, she outlined the most common regrets of the people she had cared for. The post flowed completely of its own accord, without hesitation, simply drawing upon powerful, clear memories.

That post went viral and was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year.

But something else happened in parallel.

By applying the lessons of those nearing their death to her own life, she developed an understanding that it is possible for every one of us to live a regret-free life if we make the right choices.

Regret is not all bad news.

We all have regrets. Some are little regrets like, not taking an opportunity when it presented itself or making a mistake with our eyes open. But then there are bigger regrets. 

Regrets that can make our lives a living hell, taking us through a whole spectrum of emotional states. 

One side of the spectrum is the dark lament we feel when we’re reminded of how fucked up and flawed we are. But the other side of regret, the side that makes it all worth it, is the light it shines in. That light guides us to a better understanding of ourselves — and ultimately to a place of acceptance of how fucked up and flawed we are. — Mark Mason

  • Regret is a sign that we are engaged with life. Without regret, we cannot learn from our mistakes, and we are destined to repeat them. The anxiety and the feeling of dissatisfaction are the messages from our souls saying something is wrong and needs addressing.
  • Addressing regret leads to a better life. Leaving regret unidentified can lead to self-hatred. We can see around us people who can’t forgive themselves after they had done something wrong. They constantly blame themselves. They can’t find happiness until they address the regret of their lives. There is life after regret. One can recover.
  • Identifying regret leads to remorse. And in remorse is the nirvana. Remorse involves insight into what one has done to others. It is the beginning of becoming aware of how one behaves and wanting to do something differently. When you can begin to experience genuine remorse for what you’ve done, something authentic starts to happen.
  • Regret is an opportunity to do things differently next time. Though very painful regret can be a gift. It can be a doorway to a better way of living. A right kind of regret which can be understood and worked through can lead to remorse and repair is the strongest sign of life meaningfully lived.

Three kinds of Regrets

Simply put, regrets are the choices we made.

We think we should have done something better but didn’t. We should have chosen a better life partner, but didn’t. We should have not said those harsh words but we did. We should have taken that more exciting but risky job, but didn’t. We should have been more disciplined, but weren’t.

We regret these choices, which happened in the past and can’t be changed. We compare them to an ideal path that we think we should have taken. We can’t shake the idea from our heads of what could have been if only we had made a different choice.

And since we cannot change those choices we start regretting them. 

I would divide regrets into three kinds. 

Something you did wrong.

We all have done something we shouldn’t have. We are humans after all. We make mistakes. But carrying that mistake to your grave is a bigger mistake.

Opening yourself up to the possibility of making mistakes and learning from the experience is a better way to deal with this kind of regret rather than beating yourself over it for years to come. 

It’s not an easy thing to do but with practice, it does get easier, because the more we can allow ourselves to make mistakes and learn from them, the fewer mistakes we make.

Yet, strange as it sounds, there are people for whom this kind of regret can become a safe haven, because it can protect them from the pain and risks of living a full life. 

Two out of the five regrets of the dying who confided in Bronnie Ware fell in this category. 

Something you want to do all your life and didn’t do it.

The number one regret of the dying that they admitted to Bronnie Ware was:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

It is not unusual for people to keep living the life that others expected from them rather than gather enough courage to live the life they want to live.

Unlived life also becomes that cause of unfulfillment, anxiety, self-loathing. Many people seeking therapy because they feel paralyzed by regret and yet unable to live a full life. We hate our work, our relationship suffers and our self-confidence suffers too. ‘I’m so terrible. I’m dreadful.’ It is self-flagellation, and it can be incredibly damaging to our mental health.

When we are trapped in a cycle of dissatisfaction and inability to live the life we truly want to live, we blame others for our fulfillment. This when the regret becomes toxic.

The grass is greener on the other side. 

There is a tendency with regret to see the pathway you didn’t take as inevitably better than the pathway you did.

It may well be that this other pathway would indeed have worked out better but the point is that we cannot know for sure.

It is that certainty, that transformation into the knowledge of what can only ever really be a supposition, that is the hallmark of toxic regret.

It is the ability to accept yourself, to recognize that there was a wider context to your actions and to understand that you made the decisions you made based on the values and the information you had at the time, that leads to remorse and self-knowledge.

What regrets do you have?

Are you living the life you wanted to live or the others prescribed for you?

Are you spending enough time with your loved ones?

Do you have plenty of time to enjoy life or you are always rushed?

Are you in contact with your friends and loved ones?

Do you express your feelings?

Do you allow yourself to be happy?

Are you keeping up with the Johns or do you have the courage to walk your own walk?

Is there any space for creativity or your life?

Two years ago my biggest regret was that I was not able to spend much time writing. 

I tackled it head-on. I took early retirement and started concentrating on writing. Now I am a full-time writer.

Here are a few things you can do to tackle your regrets.

Whether your regrets are large — like choosing to turn down a job or not trying hard enough for a medical school entrance exam or unkind things you said to someone, letting go of regret is beneficial.

Here are a few things you can do to create a little space between you and your regrets:

Make a list of your regrets and try to understand the rationale behind your choice. 

It might seem counterintuitive, but if you find yourself thinking about your regrets it can help to write about them. Did you really make the wrong choice? Can it be corrected? If yes, what measures can you take to correct it. If not, what can you do to let it go. What lesson you can learn from it so that you don’t make the same mistake.

Forgive yourself.

If you have done something wrong and you have realized, and feel remorse it is time to forgive yourself. If you have fallen short of your expectation, it too is the time to forgive yourself. There’s no magic solution to make you feel okay immediately with whatever you regret, but by processing and forgiving yourself you can begin to let go.

It is not the mistake that counts, it is the lesson it teaches you.

This is just another way of gaining context and perspective because hanging on to mistakes means you are not paying attention to the lesson it carries. And you are not moving ahead. Even if you have made the wrong choice repeatedly, it is time you learn the lesson because now the stakes are even higher. It is time to change the course.

Make amends.

If your regret involves other people, it is time to forget and forgive them as well. If appropriate apologize and make amends. Sometimes it is just a matter of reaching out. 

If you suspect that someone will genuinely benefit from your delayed apology, it is better to reach out, rather than regret it at your death bed.

Your Takeaway

View regret as an opportunity to do things differently next time, rather than a signal that you should give up trying altogether.

If you have caused hurt or harm, instead of beating yourself up, do what you can to repair the damage.

Tackle your regret head-on while there is still time.

Be kind to yourself. Allow yourself to “get it wrong.” Forgive yourself and others. Life is too short to keep grudges. 

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Image by Pixabay

How To Make Sure You Listen To Inspiration When It Whispers

Neera

Last week I wrote everything changes when you start working from the fourth level of consciousness, where I introduced levels of consciousness as a roadmap for growth.

At level one of consciousness, we are a part of the Culturescape. Our goals are given to us by the society, the culture that we are part of. “Get good grades.” “Get a good job.” “Become a doctor.” “Make a lot of money and live comfortably.” “Invest, build a portfolio.”

As we are achieving those goals, at some point, we start questioning society’s norms. We start questioning other people’s expectations from us, whether they are our parents or spouses, or bosses. We start questioning the religion. And we start realizing we don’t have to follow what we have been told all our life That we can choose our own experiences in life.

That is when we move to level two of consciousness. At level two, we look for a purpose for life, a way to contribute to this universe. This is when our goals come from inside us.

At level three, we discover we are a part of a greater whole. We see everyone else as part of us and everything else as part of us. We begin to see things differently to act differently to react differently and experience ourselves in a brand new way, a way that can change your life forever. We start re-coding ourselves, and we find ourselves at the fourth level of consciousness.

But we are level four; the goals are coming from a completely different place.

The goals come from Inspiration.

Now, what is Inspiration?

You could call it God, you could call it the Universe, or you could call it your superconscious.

You think you came up with a brilliant idea for that book, or you came up with that brilliant idea for that new program, or you were the genius who came up with the idea for your business, but you did not.

You were simply the conduit.

You have a boss, and that boss has been whispering in your ear. She’s been telling you and pushing you and inspiring you to make that happen.

That is Inspiration.

And that inspiration gives you your intention.

When you start showing that you have intent to listen to it, and you’re going to start moving towards it, she removes the roadblocks.

So you don’t set goals; the goals are not coming from society, they are not coming from you, but they are whispered to you.

You hear whispers.

You have these little intuitive nudges you feel get while you are showering or waking up in the morning, and bang! An idea for that next blog post. Or an idea for that next product you have to build. The idea for the next course you want to serve. It just hits you.

This is Inspiration.

There is this really interesting story about what happens when you start listening to inspiration.

Michael Jackson would wake up at three am and call his manager, and would go, “Butterflies. Butterflies.”

The manager would say, “Michael, what the hell is going on. It’s three am.”

Michael would say, “I got this idea for a song. It’s about butterflies; I got to write it now.

Exasperated, his manager would say, “Michael, it is three am. Can this wait till tomorrow morning?

Michael would respond, “No, if I don’t write it, Prince will.”

How to listen to the Inspiration?

Vishan Lakhiani, in his book “Code of Evolution,” states that at level four, we start feeling that we are particles of God having a human experience.

He calls humans Godicles. We are all God’s equals here on planet Earth, playing God within our own cognitive plane.

When that happens, we feel a deep sense of connectedness with all life with all human beings.

With this sense of connectedness, we open up to intuition.

What is intuition?

Intuition is one of these words that gets thrown around a lot but not many people know how to cultivate the skills to be able to hear their intuition on a daily basis. — Emily Fletcher

And if you ask any high performer CEO, any entrepreneur, how did you come up with an idea, they would say it was just my intuition. I just had this feeling in my gut.

So for many people, intuition is a sort of elusive gut thing that can be how they know something without the involvement of their critical mind.

Our left-brain critical mind is always screaming at us. I suck. I suck. I suck. And it’s very hard to hear your intuition when your critical mind screams at you because your intuition whispers. It says, write that book. Start that business. Compose that song; here is the melody.

If you don’t have a daily meditation practice that it’s very hard to tell the difference between your critical mind and your intuitive mind.

And if you’ve got this screaming, I suck. I suck. I suck voice happening all the time; how are you supposed to hear that intuitive voice?

What meditation does is that it takes our right brain to the gym every single day.

Our right brain is the piece of you that is in charge of intuition. It is the part of you that actually connects to collective intelligence.

Think of intuition and creativity as a Wi-Fi network, and your right brain is the router. Your right brain is the piece of you that allows you to connect to collective intelligence. And your left brain is the actual computer.

You could have the most developed intellect and incredible life experience, which would be like having the fanciest computer. But it doesn’t matter how good a computer is; it is no good if it is not connected to the internet.

Now, Imagine you connect that computer to the internet; how much smarter it becomes? How much more capable it becomes because you’re exchanging ideas. You’re able to intuit other people’s intellect. You’re able to hear how nature actually wants to use you to deliver your fulfillment.

So sit in silence and tune in to Inspiration to get the intuition.

But herein lies humanity’s problem.

Blaise Pascal made huge contributions to physics and mathematics, notably in fluids, geometry, and probability. He died at the young age of 39.

Right before his death, he was hashing out fragments of private thoughts that were later released as a collection by the name of Pensées.

While the book is mostly a mathematician’s case for choosing a life of faith and belief, the more curious thing about its clear and lucid ruminations on what it means to be human.

He wrote:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Zat Rana, another Medium writer, wrote in an article that has got the most claps ever, wrote our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

At its core, our addiction to TV, social media, movies, social gathering is in faction an addiction to a state of not-being-bored.

At its root is the dread of the nothingness of nothing. We can’t imagine just being rather than doing.

But according to Zat, there is a solution. The only way to beat this fear is to face it like any other fear. Face the boredom and let it take you where it wants so you can deal with whatever it is that is really going on with your sense of self.

That’s when you’ll hear yourself think, and that’s when you’ll learn to engage the parts of you that are masked by distraction.

The beauty of this is that, once you cross that initial barrier, you realize that being alone isn’t so bad. Boredom can provide its own stimulation.

When you surround yourself with moments of solitude and stillness, you become intimately familiar with your environment in a way that forced stimulation doesn’t allow. The world becomes richer, the layers start to peel back, and you see things for what they really are, in all their wholeness, in all their contradictions, and in all their unfamiliarity.

When you get to this state, you don’t just get your goals, your purpose; you get much more from the universe.

Read about any great person, whether they were spiritual leaders like Buddha, musicians, or entrepreneurs, they all followed a nudge at some point in their life.

Elon Musk woke up one day in the middle of the night with an idea on how to create a better rocket. Likewise, John Lennon got the music of his greatest song in a dream.

The Takeaway

Start understanding that there is a bigger source where you can tap, and that source is Inspiration. You can call it God, Universe, or you Superconscious.

Inspiration speaks in whispers. You need to be attuned to it to be able to listen to it.

You need regular daily meditation practice to hear the whispers of Inspiration that we call intuitions.

The hardest thing to do for humans is to sit quietly in a room, alone.

But if you can develop that practice, you will get in touch with the world within you and the whole world that we call the universe.

A big shift begins to happen then, and things shift, very, very, rapidly.

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Resources: Four Levels of Consciousness, Mindvalley

Zat Rana: The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

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3 Pieces of Advice For Creative People

Neera

Advice #1

A young man approached Henry Kissinger, a renowned diplomat and a former U.S. Secretary of State, and asked, “Mr. Kissinger, can you give some career advice.”

“No,” said Kissinger in a gruff voice.

Disappointed, the young man turned around to go away. Kissinger stopped him and explained, “My advice is ‘no.’ Always let your first answer be a no.”

To move mountains, you have to learn to say no. You have to learn to be selective in the tasks you say yes to. You have to learn to focus. Because energy flows towards the place, you focus your attention on.

Advice #2

Once there was a donkey who was thirsty as well as hungry. The donkey spotted some hay on one side and water on the opposite side.

But the donkey didn’t know which one to go to first.

The donkey looked at the hay; then it looked at the water. Looked at the hay looked at the water. Am I hungry? Am I thirsty? Am I hungry? Am I thirsty?

And eventually, the donkey died of dehydration.

Sometimes we are that donkey. Should I make this? Should I make that? Should I write this? Should I write that? And we don’t even start.

But for some reason we feel productive. Because we are thinking about it. Thinking about stuff is not doing stuff. It’s the complete opposite of doing stuff. We fall int the trap of deliberation, pondering, questioning, thinking, strategizing, and debating, it might feel like we are moving forward, but we are stuck.

Doing a bit of this and a bit of that is like laying single brick of a million different houses and expecting that one day it will magically become a mansion. It’s not going to happen.

You can do ten things to one degree or you can do one thing to the tenth degree.

Rather than spreading yourself, do one thing. Draw the same thing every single day. Paint in one medium everyday. Sketch the same cartoon character everyday. Write a poem (or an an article or a short story) everyday.

And this is true for work too. This is true for dating versus committing yourself to one person friendship, everything. Really focusing and investing yourself into something you’re passionate about will always yield better results than scattering yourself around.

Advice #3

Adele Adkins is one of the world’s best music artists but there is something that not many people know. She is afraid of her audience. She has crazy stage fright.

Being such a talented artist, she still hates touring and putting on live shows. Because she has a crazy fear. What if the audience think that my recorded performance is better than my live performance?

So how did Adele overcome her stage fright?

Adele did something that made her stage fright manageable. She learnt a trick from a fellow musician – Beyonce.

Beyonce created an alter-ego to fight her stage fright. Her calls her alter-ego — Sasha Fierce. As soon as Beyonce would put on her shoes and hear the crowd, her alter-ego Sasha Fierce would take over. And Sasha Fierce has no fear. Beyonce created a character that she could put on, like other people put on clothes.

When Adele heard about it, she too created an own alter-ego. She called it, Sasha Carter, which is a mix of Beyonce’s Sasha Fierce and country music star June Carter. Sasha Carter could get on stage and blow the audience away.

Why did such a crazy thing like creating an alter-ego work?

Adele’s fear was not based on fact, but on belief. She criticized herself because of a what-if scenario.

The mind is a crazy thing. When it criticizes itself, it causes all sorts of problems.

Alter-ego builds distance between the mind and the behavior.

Self distancing is the key. Self distancing allows you to view yourself more objectively. It allows you to see the bigger picture and not be bogged down with feelings.

Alter-ego works because it helps you build self distance.

When I started writing I created an alter-ego too – Ms Jolly. Here is snapshot from my website where I introduce her.

Your alter-egos don’t have to be forever. Alter-egos are tools that help you accept yourself when you change your behaviour.

But your behavior changes you too. Acting confident indeed makes you feel more confident.

Beyonce acknowledged in 2010 that she had killed Sasha Fierce. Sasha Fierce helped Beyonce with public performances. But when Beyonce got over her fear she outgrew the need for her alter-ego.

Face whatever fear you have for your creativity by creating and alter-ego.

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Image by infographics from Pixabay

Time Management Doesn’t Work

Neera

Late in the nineteenth century, Frederick Taylor grabbed a stopwatch, stood next to a worker, and instructed him to pick a chunk of iron and move it using a specific set of movements. He then timed him. 

He did this repeatedly until he had the perfect combination of movements for moving the chunk of iron efficiently.

Taylor then taught those prescribed moments to other workers in the yard of Bethlehem Steel. As a result, the productivity of the plant quadrupled.

This was the birth of “time management.”

The concept swept through the industrial world, and productivity became the aim of each industry. 

Before Taylor’s stopwatch measurement of performing a task, no one thought of the time that way. 

Most people worked on farms. They were decided what to do and when to do it based upon the movement of the sun rather than the movement of hands on a dial. Their schedules were determined by the sun, moon, and seasons rather than the watches and calendars. 

The truth was most people didn’t even know what day or time it was.

Taylor’s big contribution to productivity was that he thought of time as a “production unit.” 

Add more time, get more output.

Do more work within that time, get more output.

Today we still think of time as a “production unit,” this attitude is so ingrained in our culture that we are hardly aware of it.

For more than a century, “time management” has dominated our psyche. 

We wake up to alarms. As we drive to work, our navigation system calculates exactly how long it will take. We work from nine to five. We estimate project cost based on how much time it is going to take to finish it. 

We diligently fill our timesheets so our employers can bill clients for our time. 

As you opened this article to read, you probably checked the time it would take you to read it.

Everything around us is set up with the assumption that time is precious. 

Whatever is your goal, if you reached it in less time, that’s a good thing. 

Time is money. That is the mantra.

But there was a major problem with this concept.

The time as a production unit has its limits. 

Even Taylor observed that if he tried to fill all of his worker’s time with efficient movements, he didn’t get what he expected. After a while, the worker gets tired and does less and less. 

This concept in economics is known as the “point of diminishing returns.” That is when each additional production unit doesn’t get you the same output as the previous production unit.

If Taylor wanted to get a full day’s work out of a worker, Taylor needed not only to prescribe movements to that worker; he also needed to prescribe rest to that worker.

The “point of diminishing returns” is more evident in knowledge workers.

In today’s world, where creative thinking is the key to being productive, you can’t get more output simply by optimizing time.

Yet this is what we try to do all the time. We cram our schedule, multitask, and always in a hurry. Any opportunity we can find to do things faster, we take it without realizing time is not the only factor we need to take into consideration.

There is another factor in play — energy.

While time is precise, our energy level is not the same throughout the day.

Time management works well if every hour were identical in terms of energy. 

But our energy levels go up and down all through the day. So we recharge them either by taking breaks, naps or taking a walk, or watching mindless TV. 

The way to work with your energy is to make sure you know when your energy levels are at the peak and use them well. 

I divide my energy levels into three categories:

  • Peak Energy Level. It is when I am well-rested, emotionally sound, and at peace with myself. This peak energy is the creative energy, when I conceive new ideas, can go deep into a topic, and learn new things. Usually, for me, it is mornings. This is when I do most of my fresh writing.
  • Medium Energy Level. This is when I am a bit tired and not in a mood to tackle heavy thinking work. But I am still quite alert. My afternoons and evenings are like that. I use this time for researching, editing, sketching, and painting.
  • Low Energy Level. Each day I reach a point of exhaustion when I can’t do work that involves thinking or concentrating. At these times, I don’t push myself to write or do anything that involves heavy thinking. But surprisingly, I am still good to read a book or watch a Masterclass video. This is the best time to wind down watching TV, surfing the net, or checking social media. 

Now that I am aware of my energy levels, I am well equipped to manage them.

I am very vigilant of my peak energy periods and don’t waste them doing tasks that I can do with medium or low energy levels. That is why doing research or checking social media in the mornings is a big no-no. 

Sometimes both “time” and “energy” are not enough to be productive. 

I have been trying to write an ebook for a long time now. In fact, I have several in draft mode. But, unfortunately, every time I make time to work on those, and I have selected peak energy hours, I hardly make any progress. 

It is not the lack of time or energy that stops me from writing those books (it is not even the skill level). It is the mindset. 

Things are not difficult to make; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them. — Constantin Brancusi

I have no problem writing an article a day now. Just a few weeks ago, that was an unthinkable proposition. So when I announced my intention to write 100 Articles in 100 Days, I was in the right mindset to take the challenge. 

Nothing changed between that day and one week before other than my mindset.

I am sure one day I will be in the right frame of mind to tackle the ebook. 

Sometimes our mind is better suited to think creatively. Other times it’s better suited to think analytically. Sometimes we’re in a mood to do some research. Other times, we’re better off taking care of little details.

Manage your creative energy so that instead of going through a to-do list in order of priority, tackle it in order of mood priority. Ask yourself, What work am I in the mood to do right now?

In Summary

Time Management is an outdated concept. It only takes “time” as the production unit and assumes your energy levels are the same at all times during the day.

But we have all fallen into energy black holes.

Rather than managing time, manage your energy.

Do the tasks that require thinking and a high level of concentration when your energy levels are at the peak. 

Make sure you don’t waste them; otherwise, you will feel crappy, and it will create a doom loop of lower energy.

Mindset is the third factor of productivity. Our mood dictates what is the optimum thing to do at a given time. So rather than fighting it, how about we listen to it. After all things, we do wholeheartedly turn out to be our best creation.

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash