Mindmapping different kinds of Time

Time and how I use it, or how it uses me is occupying my thoughts. I’m noticing that my life revolves around my work life which revolves around my To-Do list which means I’m reduced to finding part of my joy in checking off a series of tasks from a list. That’s so not how I want to live my life.

And in terms of the kinds of meetings I design and facilitate, a meeting whose sole purpose is to check some things off a To-Do list? So not the kind of meeting I’d like to be at.

I’m ready for a total reorganization of the concept of how I spend my time. Luckily I got a chance to explore these thoughts the other week with super-genius Charlie Gilkey of Productive Flourishing during a Kitchen Table class. Charlie is all about helping creative people be more productive, except we’re not going to use the P-word again. It’s been replaced with Meaningful Action.

Things that are missing when you have a To-Do list

Is your life run by a To-Do list? Mine is. It’s helpful in many ways. My list makes the perfectionist in me very happy when I put big checks in the cute little boxes I’ve drawn. It keeps me on task and moving forward. But if too many days go by and I’m not checking things off I feel frustrated that nothing seems to be getting done.

My To-Do list is also almost exclusively work centric as in the things that I really want to do and bring into my life — like having an afternoon for painting or taking a hike on the weekend — never show up on the list. Why is that?

How to bring those things I want into my daily schedule

In thinking about how I spend my time in terms of qualities I want more of in my life, I’m trying to shift my actions from specific tasks to cultivating expanses of time in which I can do several kinds of things that will deliver the kind of experience I want to feel.

That’s a bit esoteric I know, so let me explain. I’ve been doing yoga and meditation for many years and reiki for the past several, both of which have helped me develop my intuition. I would like to spend more time than I do now exploring my intuition. So instead of thinking: I have to do yoga, I have to meditate, what about saying, I want to spend time with my intuition — Intuition Time — and that expanse of Time could include some yoga poses, some meditation, some daydreaming, some journaling, etc.

Same thing goes for the art I want to do. Creating Time could be getting out my watercolors and splashing them around. It could be thinking up new ideas for my business. It could be practicing my graphic facilitation skills.

Charlie assured me that my new awareness was “dead-on” and referred me to a post he wrote about how to readjust your life, taking it from To-Do-list-driven to something that works better for creatives (or really anybody) called Create, Connect & Consume. The premise is that if you are doing any one of those three things on a given day, it’s a win.

Mindmapping while getting my oil changed

While I was looking over the notes from my conversation with Charlie, I suddenly wanted to see this new concept of arranging my day, my week, my month in a Mindmap because I’m visual that way.

I happened to be at my mechanic’s getting my oil changed and only had a couple of pens handy — not as many fun colors as I like to play with — but I whipped out this Mindmap in about five minutes. Organizing the qualities and experiences I want to bring into my life that don’t have much room right now.

The titles I came up with for the containers of time I want to have are: Creating Time. Trying New Things Time. Developing Intuition Time. Reading Time. Connecting With Friends Time. Restorative Time. Adventure Time.

Around the bubbles I wrote the activities I could do within each one of those categories that would bring that quality into my life. For Restorative Time I listed: taking walks, massage, music and daydreaming.

How this relates to meetings

This has me thinking that meetings need different kinds of Time too, many of which are the same that I need: Creating Time. Trying New Things Time. Connecting Time. Adventure Time. Restorative Time.

And wouldn’t it be interesting to have container of qualities to design your meeting around, kind of like an underlying energetic guidance system, instead of being completely wedded to a To-Do list? Actually a combination of both would be pretty powerful.

What are the kinds of Time you’d like to have more of in your life?