I’ve been doing some writing on the self-help area lately (post on the subject coming up), and one of the topics typically covered are time management. It’s a popular topic no doubt, and there’s probably a reason why people say things like “there’s only 24 hours in a day“, “wish I had more time” or “I don’t have the time” and so on. To a certain extent I understand this very well. I’m a project manager, and at the moment I’m working on building a new course from more or less the ground up, and believe me, If I could have a few weeks extra before launch, I wouldn’t say no.

The Time Mangement Process

Whatever you choose to call your approach to time management, it usually covers a few standard points:

• Categorize where you spend your time
• Define areas in a matrix, continuum or similar ranging from “highly urgent and important” to “not important at all”
• Prioritizing your areas and actions that need to be done
• Create a to do list
• Do the most important action item, cross oit ff the list, go to the next one etc.

Some of the more advanced ones (which I like) go a step further (or before), focusing on your outcomes, purposes, and then planning (where many of the other programs start). If you’ve ever heard of NLP or Tony Robbins, this might be familiar ground.

However, this post is not about how to manage your time. There are probably more than enough resources online for this.

What’s Your Mindset Like?

There is a group in the population that has a very different approach to time and the amount of it that we have available: Kids. Remember when you were a kid and you were waiting on, say your favorite TV show (when I grew up in Norway we had one channel, and about half an hour devoted to kids at 6 pm) and it wasn’t on until an hour later? When you’re a kid an hour lasts five billion minutes if you’re waiting for something (consider waiting to unwrap presents when it’s Christmas). A kid will find a hundred things to do for an hour. There are trees to climb, action figures to play with, that lego car you’re going to build, run around with the family dog, say hello the kid next door… you know what I mean, right.

What are grown-ups like? “hmm…, well, I doubt I have the time right now. I’ve got a meeting in one hour. How about later?”

So the idea I have here is that maybe we (at least us adults) should adopt kids’ mindsets every now and then when it comes to time and time management. How much could you do in an hour if you thought of time the way kids do, rather than what you do as an adult?

What’s your take on it?