{"id":1215,"date":"2009-11-20T11:08:11","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2013-09-27T09:22:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T17:22:29","slug":"6-types-of-time-which-are-you-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/6-types-of-time-which-are-you-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Types of Time: Which Are You Missing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jimheid\/644578733\/\"><\/a> Image Courtesy of Jimheid\/Flickr\n<p>I spent last weekend on retreat, taking 48 hours out of my life to get away to a secluded countryside retreat center where I could have a chance to rest, relax and reflect. This opportunity made me think about what <em>types<\/em> of time we have in our lives: all hours are not necessarily equal, and time management advice doesn&#8217;t always address this.<\/p>\n<p>These are six key types of time which we need:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Creative and productive<\/li>\n<li>Physically energetic and active<\/li>\n<li>Playful and entertaining<\/li>\n<li>Learning and developing<\/li>\n<li>Reflective and spiritual<\/li>\n<li>Restful and relaxing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Do you have a gut feeling for which sorts of time you tend to focus on \u2013 and which you might be neglecting?<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Creative and Productive<\/h2>\n<p><strong>This type of time is the sort which much advice focuses on. It&#8217;s the time in which you <em>produce <\/em><\/strong><strong>something: whether that&#8217;s a company report, a painting, a new musical score, or a clear inbox.<\/strong> Although this time is sometimes very personally fulfilling, the end result is generally a product to be shared with or consumed by others in some way.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, this sort of time <em>is <\/em>important, if we want to have any impact on the world. It&#8217;s also the type of time in which we earn money \u2013 by creating value for others that they pay us for \u2013 either through our paid employment or through self-employment.<\/p>\n<p>However, being creative and productive requires energy. Many of us have a time of day in which we can most easily do this type of work: you probably have a sense of whether you&#8217;re a <em>morning person<\/em> or an <em>evening person<\/em>. Despite what time management programs and gurus might have you think, you simply cannot spend many hours of your day working at this level. That&#8217;s why all the other ways to spend your time are just as important\u2026<\/p>\n<h2>Physically Energetic and Active<\/h2>\n<p><strong>We know that exercise is vital for good health \u2013 both physical and mental. It often helps to re-energize us for the cerebral work of creating and producing<\/strong>: if you&#8217;re feeling sluggish during the work day, you may have noticed how restorative a walk or jog is to your energy levels.<\/p>\n<p>Although we&#8217;re all aware of the benefits of being active, this is often one of the areas of time that gets pushed aside by the need to &#8220;get things done&#8221;. It&#8217;s also a type of time that needs integrating on a daily, or semi-daily basis: none of us would think it wise to do no exercise at all for three weeks, then spend a week running a daily marathon!<\/p>\n<h2>Playful and Entertaining<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Although this area overlaps with &#8220;creative&#8221;, I&#8217;ve drawn a distinction because we all need time when we&#8217;re doing something fun that is <em>not<\/em><\/strong><strong> for other people: it&#8217;s purely for us. <\/strong>Entertainment often gets a bad rap from the time management experts \u2013 but it&#8217;s vital for us to have times of fun, excitement and enjoyment.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what some would have you think, television is not evil and you don&#8217;t have to cut it out of your life in order to be more &#8220;productive&#8221;. The key to having <em>restorative<\/em> playful time is to deliberately choose to watch programs that you really enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike exercise, you don&#8217;t necessarily need to schedule in play-time every day (though I think it&#8217;s a good idea). You might, for instance, choose to spend weekend afternoons doing something just for fun, perhaps watching a movie or playing board games with friends.<\/p>\n<h2>Learning and Developing<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Many of us think that learning stops when we finish high school or college. Making a conscious effort to carry on learning new things and developing your skills, though, pays dividends in many ways<\/strong>: it can be very satisfying and rewarding in itself; it helps you progress in your career; it can open up new opportunities for you.<\/p>\n<p>Learning doesn&#8217;t have to involve teaching: you don&#8217;t need to pay a lot of money to take qualifications. Books, good websites, and free lectures are all sources of learning \u2013 as are friends with particular skills.<\/p>\n<p>In many cases, it won&#8217;t necessarily be appropriate or practical to try to fit a few minutes&#8217; of learning into each day (though if you&#8217;re studying a foreign language, for instance, this might be the best method). How about marking out a weekend each month for the purposes of learning something new, or, if you&#8217;re self-employed, focusing one morning each week on developing new skills?<\/p>\n<h2>Reflective and Spiritual<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Even if you would never describe yourself as &#8220;religious&#8221;, you still have a spiritual side \u2013 and many of us neglect to nurture this.<\/strong> It&#8217;s easy to carry on through the busyness of life without ever taking time to stop and reflect on some of the truly important things.<\/p>\n<p>Reflective time might include thinking about your values (and how well your life fits with them); it could mean examining habits and patterns which are no longer working for you. On a spiritual level, you might join in some form of religious observance, whether public or private.<\/p>\n<p>Meditation, prayer or simply learning to &#8220;be still&#8221; can be ways to clear the clutter of the day. In some cases, you may want to combine these with a focus on being in your body \u2013 perhaps gentle walking or exercise such as yoga.<\/p>\n<p>If you can make a few minutes each day, or several times during the day, to take a mental step back from what you&#8217;re doing to focus on <em>why<\/em> you&#8217;re doing it, this can provide much-needed perspective. A longer time of reflection or spiritual observance \u2013 perhaps going away for a weekend, attending a quiet day, or going to a religious service if appropriate \u2013 can be extremely refreshing and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n<h2>Restful and Relaxing<\/h2>\n<p>Although this overlaps with the previous category to some extent, there are differences. Reflective and spiritual time often requires deep thought \u2013 on a level which we often avoid. This can be hard work, emotionally draining, or can lead to complete changes in our life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time to rest and relax, however, is when we simply give our minds a break! On a very basic level, rest time means getting enough sleep \u2013 something which many of us don&#8217;t do.<\/strong> It also means allowing ourselves time to simply let our minds wander. For some, that means gentle craft activity (knitting&#8217;s a popular one), for others, it might be flicking through magazines or surfing the internet without any particular aim in mind \u2013 simply taking time out for our thoughts to free-wheel.<\/p>\n<p>A shower, a bubble bath, or even a massage are other ways to truly rest and relax. We need this time (most obviously in the form of sleep) on a daily basis: don&#8217;t try to rush through Monday \u2013 Friday and save all your &#8220;rest&#8221; time for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p><em>What sorts of time are you good at getting into your life? We&#8217;re all different, and we all need a different balance of these six types \u2013 where do you think you need to redress the balance in your own life?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Don&#8217;t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/pickthebrain\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong>Related Articles:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/time-is-all-we-have-3-ways-to-increase-return-on-investment\/\">Time is All We Have: 3 Ways To Increase The\u00a0 Return On Investment<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/how-to-find-time-for-new-habits\/\">How To Find Time For New Habits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I spent last weekend on retreat, taking 48 hours out of my life to get away to a secluded countryside retreat center where I could have a chance to rest, relax and reflect. This opportunity made me think about what types of time we have in our lives: all hours are not necessarily equal, and time management advice doesn&#8217;t always address this. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/6-types-of-time-which-are-you-missing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":12814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,66,4639,4629,4640,4647],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6 Types of Time: Which Are You Missing?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These are six key types of time which we need: Creative and productive 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