Does your box of time have holes in it?

How do you visualize your time?

Snowman in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake talks about time as a box.

"He has to find more and better ways of occupying his time. His time, what a bankrupt idea, as if he's been given a box of time that belongs to him alone, stuffed to the brim with hours and minutes that he can spend like money. The trouble is, the box has holes in it and the time is running out, no matter what he does with it." 

I don't think the idea is so "bankrupt".

We all have boxes of time and time is steadily running out of them.

Some live long and have large boxes. Some only live shortly on this earth and have small packets rather than boxes.

The holes in the boxes let time through in an equal pace for all of us though. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Are you happy about how you have used the time that has run out of your box until now?

I hope so.

If not, remember that all the time that is still in your box can be used the way you want to. All you need to do is to realize that your box contains your time. You get to decide how to spend it.  It is never too late to become the master of your time, the master of your box.

May you make the most of all the time you still have in your box.

Would you like tailored help?

Send me an email or book a short intro call to see if and how I can help. https://calendly.com/annikaslol/15min-intro-call

info@annikarosendahl.com

You can also read more at www.annikarosendahl.com

See beyond the explanations

Have you heard someone call a man hysterical lately?

Or ever?

Chances are you haven't, but you may have heard someone call a woman hysterical.

I recently read Rebecca Solnit's Män förklarar saker för mig / Men explain things to me.

In the book Rebecca describes that the word hysterical comes from the greek word hysteria which means uterus. When women were "hysterical" and showed extreme emotions and confusion, an explanation was needed. So an explanation was made up.

Hysteria came from - prepare for this explanation - "a wandering uterus".

Meaning that men could not be hysterical.

Today it is easy to laugh or shrug at this ridiculous explanation. Wandering uteruses. Who on earth came up with that?

Coming up with an explanation to prove what you believe, or what you want others to believe, is not uncommon. It happens all the time. 

Women cannot... because...
Men cannot... because...
Black people cannot... because...
Jews cannot... because...

Explanations are not proof. They are justifications for something someone believes in. 

Don't buy into explanations without using your own common sense.
Don't let anyone fool you.

And most of all - don't let yourself fool you, by explaining why you cannot do something you could do - if you weren't afraid of failing. 

Look beyond the explanation.
That is where you will find the truth.

Give your 2019 goals a chance to succeed

We have a bright new year ahead of us! Have you set goals? Any new year resolutions?

Many of these resolutions don't last, and far from all goals that are set, are reached.

Let's look at how you can increase your ability to reach the goals you have set.

For now I will assume you have set the goal to train more this year.

Write down what your life would be like in an ideal world. 
If you could have, do and feel everything you wanted, what would your life be like?

Make sure your 2019 goal is connected to this vision. 
Will achieving your 2019 goal move you towards your vision? Is training more related to the vision of  your life? If not, consider another goal, or a re-phrasing of your goal.

Next, make sure your goal is connected to who you are.

Who are you? You are a person who takes on several different roles in your life. Like being a child, a parent, a spouse, a friend, a colleague...

Choose the role that is related to the goal you have chosen. 

Write down what your mission is for this role; what your reason for being is.

Make sure your 2019 goal is connected to your role and your mission. 

Let me give you an example.

My husband and I have several visions for our lives. One of them is:

Happy, Healthy, Loving, Family. 

Two of the related roles are Parents and Lovers.

Our mission for Parents is

Providing Love, Security and Guidance. 

Our mission as Lovers is:

Side by side through good times and bad
Love and attraction forever. 

If I set a health goal with all the above in mind, I will be a lot more likely to achieve the goal than if I just set an isolated goal like "I will train more 2019".

Connect your goals to your vision and your mission and you will achieve them.

Good luck!

How to unclutter without getting rid of things you love

Lots of books have been written about the importance of uncluttered homes.
Get rid of clutter, get rid of stress.

I value the efficiency of an uncluttered house. Like being able to find things fast and easy rather than wasting time looking for what I need. 

I also like beauty. To me beauty can include pretty precious things that remind me of places I have been or people who are dear to me. 

It took me a while to find out how to combine these two desires. Uncluttered and efficient, yet enjoying many things that matter to me. 

Like the two sets of china we have. One is a wedding present, the other  is a present from my late, beloved grand mother. 

Since a few years I keep one of the sets in the vitrine in the kitchen, while the other is stored in the attic. Every autumn and spring I switch between them, so we have a "winter china set" and a "summer china set". 

That way I can keep the look in the vitrine tidy and I get two keep both sets. Also, when I change I get a "new look" in the kitchen.

Of course the switching, including carefully wrapping the china and putting it in a box, costs some time.

I have decided it is worth my time.

When I talk about Holistic Time Management, this is one of the pieces. Looking not only at what costs time, but at what gives you energy and happiness. And then decide how you want to spend your time. 

For me, it is a good time business case to store some things and switch now and then. I do it not only with sets of china but also with clothes, coffe table books and other things.  

Your way of managing your things and your time may be different. And that is OK.

That is also part of my approach to Holistic Time Management - the only right way is your own way.  

If you haven't found your way yet, let me know and I will gladly help you find it :).

Where did my 8 hours free time go?

It was May 1, 1890.

Av Herr Axelsson i Skönvik - Klass i rörelse

 In Sundsvall in Sweden the workers demonstrated, demanding:

8 hours work
8 hours free time
8 hours rest

Maybe you work about 8 hours a day.
Maybe you sleep 8 hours or less every day.
Does it feel as if you have 8 hours free time per day?


I don't know how you spend your time.
But I know that one difference today compared to 1890, is that we spend a lot of time going from one place to the other.

In Sweden 1890, many people would work at home or close to where they lived. The kids would be at home or in a school they could walk to.

Today a lot of time is spent on bringing kids to school, going to work, picking up kids, bringing them to activities, going to the gym, taking the car to go to a shopping center etc.

Some of your "free time" may be spent transporting yourself and your family members to different places just to make life fit together.

Marta Vaidla has found another way. A way that makes it easier to manage the "work-life balance" we so often talk about.

If you want to get some ideas about how to balance or even integrate work life with family life, listen to my interview with this mother of four who works as a real estate agent.

Pressure or Pleasure - what do you choose?

A few days ago, I participated in a discussion with other project management professionals and heads of PMOs to discuss Competences needed for project managers to be ambidextrous in the business ecosystem. An interesting topic in itself, but this post is about something one of the participants said, before we even started:

"Everytime I come here, I get nervous, I feel the pressure. "

The pressure did not come from the group of leaders from different industries participating in the discussion, nor from the topic. It came from his memories from the place where we had the meeting; at Chalmers University of Technology, the university where most of us earned our degrees.

He said it jokingly, but there was a hint of seriousness about the feelings he had had when going to exams.

The comment stayed with me, since my feelings when I parked my Suzuki Gladius at the Campus were completely different. Of course I studied hard when I was a student here. Of course I participated in difficult exams, not always sure I would pass or get the results I wanted. But I also partied. A lot. And I was part of an organization that took care of the sound at concerts and arranged film evenings. I don't remember the pressure, I remember the pleasure.

You can have similar experiences as others - yet perceive them completely different. You decide what to put the focus on. You decide what memories to keep.

And then there is the future. You get to decide that too. Not what happens - but how you will react to whatever happens.

Pressure or Pleasure.

I know what I will focus on.

Do you ?

There is never a right time. Or a wrong one. Just do it!

"Once I have made x amount of money I will start my business"

"Once I own my own home, I will start a family"

"Once I have concluded university I will get myself a dream job"

Are you waiting "until" before you do something you really want?

Remember there is no such thing as "the right time".

You can start that business before you have the amount of money you envisioned.

You may find yourself pregnant and willing to start a family before you own a home.

Your dream job may show up before you have concluded university

There is no such thing as the right time. Or the wrong time for that matter.  So if you really want to do something - just do it!

This is the advice of Jenni Bush; Mother, marketing consultant and business owner.  In the video below she and I talk about daring to start your own business. Jenni also shares a funny and unusual way of cleaning the floors together with your children.

Enjoy!

Video interview: Dare to start your own business