Strategy for Snails: Stop!

Continuing in my series of blogs on strategies for snails, today I will focus on the concept of "Stop!".

Stop?  That seems counter intuitive for a "slow" person, does it not?  However, the inability to stop doing something at the appropriate time was a tendency I observed about myself.  It was a behavior that prevented me from accomplishing the things I needed to get done.  All too often I thought, "I just want to get this one little bit done and then I can go,".  Fifteen minutes later, I was fifteen minutes late for whatever I was supposed to be doing next.

Here is a classic example.  My husband and I work at the same company.  For many years, we worked in different buildings at different locations in the city.  We commuted together and he dropped me off at, and picked me up from, my building.  At the end of the day, he would text me to let me know he was on his way to pick me up.  I would be working furiously to finish up whatever I was doing, but somehow NEVER made it out of the building at the time he arrived.  He sat and waited 10 to 15 minutes for me every night.  This made us both unhappy and got the whole evening off to a bad start.  The usual time it took him to leave his building, walk out to the car, and drive over to my building was about 15 minutes.  What I should have done was work for 5 more minutes, shut down, gather my things, and walk out to meet him in the parking lot.  In reality, there was rarely anything I worked on that couldn't have been carried over to the next morning.  Or, worst case scenario, I could have continued my work at home.

There are countless examples I can give of activities that I (and maybe you?) do beyond when I should stop.  Here are a few of those:  Reading the news, reading ANYTHING, lingering at the dinner table, watching the birds at the bird feeder, reading email, lying in bed in the morning, working on any given task once I get started, watching TV if I allow myself to get started, brushing my teeth, looking at items that are not on my list at the grocery store, picking clothes for the next day and on and on.

Just take some time to observe yourself and how long you continue to work on something when it probably could have been considered finished already, or at least at a point where you could have finished it at another time.

Try this mantra:  STOP! when you are supposed to stop.

See how that works for you for a while.  You might be surprised at some increased efficiency!

As I always say, Snails, keep moving forward!

Strategy for Snails: Count Backwards

This strategy sounds so simple and so straight forward that everyone must think, "Cha!  Duh!  Of course this is how you do it!"  But, you might be surprised by how many people think only in vague terms regarding the time element in any particular event.  Those who are chronically late are almost assuredly people who do not delve into the details of what it takes to make a plan come together.  I used to be one of those people.  No more!

So, here is how it works.  Let's take the very simple example of arriving on time for dinner reservations.  Dinner will be at a very fancy restaurant in downtown Indianapolis.  Reservations are for Saturday night at 7:00 pm.  I live in a northeastern suburb, 30 minutes from downtown in good traffic.

Timeline

7:00:  Check in at the host stand
6:50 - 7:00:  Walk from parking to restaurant
6:40 - 6:50:  Find parking
6:00 - 6:40:  Drive from home to downtown (allowing for Sat night traffic)
5:50 - 6:00:  Take care of pets and make sure everything at home is secured
5:35 - 5:50:  Style hair, put on jewelry and perfume
5:20 - 5:35:  Make-up
5:10 - 5:20:  Get dressed
4:40 - 5:10:  Shower/wash hair
4:30 - 4:40:  Pick out clothes

From this exercise, I can see that I need to start getting ready by 4:30 if I am to make it to dinner downtown, looking my best, and arriving cool, calm, and collected by 7:00.  Who knew!?  Now, if that is just too much time, I can evaluate this plan and decide where I can possibly take short cuts.  Maybe I don't wash my hair.  Maybe I pick out my clothes a day ahead of time.  But, until I looked at the details of the steps involved in getting from one point in time to the other point in time, I had no idea I needed to allow that much time for it all to come together.  I would have been late, as usual.

So, Snails - try this out on a few easy targets.  Then start applying it to more detailed projects, such as planning a party or going on a vacation.  It will save you so much grief!

Until next time...keep moving forward!

Strategy for Snails: Introduction

Over the years I have discovered various strategies that have helped me manage my time more effectively and, hence, fit in more comfortably with societal expectations.  And, truth be told, they've helped me fit in better with my own expectations of myself.  It is frustrating for a person with big dreams and big goals to come to the end of a day and feel like nothing of significance was accomplished.  In that way, snails can be as tough on themselves as the rest of society can be.

So, I intend to write a series of blogs to share with you some of the strategies and techniques I've discovered that help me organize and use my time most efficiently.

Strategies:

1. Count backwards
2. Stop!
3. Don't wait for anything ever again
4. Focus
5. Plan and plan and then plan to plan
6. Use every minute with INTENTION