How changing your perspective creates more time and relieves stress

Firstly, I want you to think of the past year, what have you achieved? Are you proud of your actions? Now, think of the amount of stress in retrospect with the achievements you’ve accomplished this year, was it worth it? Could you have done more? The truth is you can always do more. The phrase “I don’t have time” is a negative perspective that justifies the lack of productivity. For example, you need to organise your wardrobe but conveniently you’ve been ‘busy’ and ‘haven’t had the time’ to get round to it. However, if someone offered you £2,000 to clean your wardrobe, you’d want to get started right now. You would make time and fit it in to your schedule. Therefore, it’s about prioritising tasks within the allocated time. Or is it? Theoretically, having appropriate tools helps us to get things done faster, more efficiently. With most of us having a miniature computer in our pockets everyone should be flying through tasks, right? Wrong. Take a second to compare your screen time to your productivity. Probably a bit shocking. Prioritising isn’t the key to time management because regardless, it doesn’t create more time, it just puts one task above the other in the order in which you’re going to do them and it doesn’t help to accomplish the other things on your todo list either. Time management is an emotional process that is often affected by levels of stress and happiness. Realistically speaking time only continues, it doesn’t wait for anyone therefore there is no such thing as time management, only self management. [DISCLAIMER: this is pre-pandemic] I’ll use myself as an example. Five years ago all I thought I had time for was to go to school, go to basketball tournaments then go back home to eat and sleep. Now, I realise how wrong I was. In the 168 hours I have of the week, I have managed to be able to go to university (-12hrs), do my pre lecture readings (-6hrs), watch pre lecture films or videos (2hrs), complete essays (-16hrs), go to the dance studio (-2hrs), exercise (-3hrs), go to work (-25hrs). While still getting a full 8 hours of sleep each night and having more than enough leisure time (46hrs remaining). There are 3 dimensions. The first dimension is significance. You have to ask yourself a question – how long something is going to matter and will it have an impact on the future? What are you doing today to make your future easier? The next dimension is multiplying your time. For this you have to give yourself the EMOTIONAL permission to spend time on things today that will give you more time tomorrow - is this worth doing right now? Affirm that you’re doing something that will benefit you emotionally - “if I do this today I can reduce stress and be happier tomorrow.” Which brings us to the last dimension. Turning the concept of stress into a positive function that will allow you to give yourself the time to get tasks done. We are told stress is bad, it needs to be avoided as it can cause mental instability and physical malfunctions like heart attacks. However, what we aren’t told is that stress IS beneficial. The stress response is an automatic reaction preparing your body to rise to the challenges it’s facing. A pounding heart means you have more blood flowing around your body. An increased breathing rate means there’s more oxygen in your brain. These reactions help you to function better. The cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress test made by Harvard University attests to this. In a nutshell the test consisted of two groups. One was told that the body has evolved to accept and react positively to stress. The other group was told the opposite. Next, the groups were ushered into a classroom where they were put under pressure and given quick arithmetic exams. Blood vessels constrict under stress but results showed that people who had a positive outlook on stress, although under it, their blood vessels did not constrict. This positive response looked like what happens in moments of joy and courage. Oxytocin - the cuddle hormone - is a neurohormone that fine tunes your brain’s social instincts, encourages you to do things that strengthen close relationships and increases empathy. Oxytocin is also a stress hormone. The stress response is a built in mechanism for stress resilience that is strengthened by human connection. It acts on your body by protecting the cardiovascular system from stress as a natural anti-inflammatory, helping blood vessels stay relaxed. The heart has receptors for oxytocin and it aids in the regeneration of heart cells healing them from any stress induced damage thus strengthening it. Mind over matter is real. You can manipulate your stress to help you be successful by changing perspectives. Just take a look at all the accomplished, inspirational people in our history who have overcome stress and the enemy of time. Once you have controlled your outlook, you can emotionally motive yourself to do the work you have neglected and that brings you closer to your goals giving the illusion that you have more time than you did before, when truly you are only investing in it and yourself. Remember, stress is not the enemy, time is success and the only way to manage your time is to manage yourself.