The third method for time management is called Lifebalance.
While this approach appears significantly different than the previous
two approaches, it can be equally as effective in helping you
organize your time in a manner that is stress-relieving for you.
Critics of traditional time management approaches contend that
more rigid planning tends to focus too much on doing and having,
and not enough on being.
They do not take into consideration our natural rhythms of life.
It is as if we can only stop to smell the roses as we are running
quickly by them to do something apparently much more urgent. In
the meantime, we miss life's important moments that are given
to us and for which we could not have possibly planned. If we
have planned every minute of our day and if we do not cross off
every planned action from our “list” we feel like
we have failed. These approaches don't appear to allow for spontaneity,
for freedom, and for “going with the flow.” To some,
there is emptiness to the traditional approaches.
Lifebalance is an approach to time and life management that promotes
a balance of purposeful planning and a healthy mix of going with
the flow.
Richard & Linda Eyre write about this in their book,
Lifebalance: Bringing Harmony to Your Everyday Life. The
Eyre's contend that we live too much of our lives out of balance.
The result of this imbalance is what Thoreau called “lives
of quiet desperation.” The search for simpler, slower, more
flexible and more meaningful lives has vanished with our culture
toward the constant search for more, better,
and different. Contentedness has been replaced by competition.
Serenity has been replaced by speed. Balance implies a healthy
combination of all that is important to us and letting our inner
nature, rather than our environment and culture, dictate our speed
and direction. The Eyre's describe the
current frustration and dilemma that many feel with time management
planners.
Here is what they found:
- Ninety-five percent of what is written in planners has to
do with work, career, or finance – creating an
imbalance between work and family and personal needs.
- Planners cause us to live by
lists, to act rather than respond. If we're
not careful, our lists control us rather than the other way
around. We begin to view things that are not on our lists as
irritations or distractions rather than as opportunities, and
we begin to lose the critical balance between structure and
spontaneity.
- Because they are accomplishment-oriented, most planners
focus our attention on things, on getting, and on doing,
sometimes at the expense of people and giving and thinking.
Thus they can be destructive to the balance between achievements
and relationships.
Some people are more comfortable with a lifestyle that simply
takes things as they come and simply “show up” with
whatever seems to unfold in their daily experience. To those who
are vigorous planners, this approach seems frivolous and unproductive.
How could anyone ever accomplish anything if he doesn't know where
he is going?
It follows the old adage, “If
you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”
“Let's consider a typical businessman who uses a
typical schedule book or time organizer. If we analyze the contents,
we will find three things:
- First, we find that more than 95 percent of his entries (lists,
plans, appointments, reminders) have to do with work.
It is hard to find anything relating to his family or to his
own personal growth.
- Second, his planning leaves
no time for spontaneity or flexibility. He prides
himself on using every hour of the day, and he gets his kicks
from checking off everything on his list. His motto is “act,
don't react,” and he likes to say that people who are
good planners hate surprises and avoid them by only allowing
things to happen if they are on the list.
- Third, just as there is no room on his schedules for spontaneity
and surprises, there is precious little
space for relationships. Planning and lists
seem to deal much more with things than with people.”
Unbalance, the Eyre's contend, results from bad habits –
habits that emphasize work at the expense of family and personal
growth, structure at the expense of spontaneity, or accomplishments
at the expense of relationships (or vice versa on any of these).
The Eyre's found, as they traveled around the country, that people
list their priorities
in this order:
- Family
- Personal character, including beliefs, education, inner growth
- Work or career
- Other interests, including recreation, TV, etc.
Compare this with how people actually
spend their time:
- Other interests, including recreation, TV, etc.
- Work or career
- Personal character
- Family
A clear discrepancy exists between what is most important to
people and how they spend their time.
