Choosing to be a time warrior gives you ways to leave linear modes of time management behind. It frees you up to enjoy going non-linear.

  What is non-linear time "management"?

  Non-linear time management is a commitment to action in the present moment. It's looking at a task and choosing NOW over “not now.” The mind then  remains clear and empty of all future considerations.

  In non-linear time management there is no line extending from my mind into the future. No segmented tapeworm of unfinished business coming out of my psyche.

  The old-fashioned time management programs had a huge, burdensome focus on the future. The line of tasks stretched out forever. It was soon fear-based and overwhelming to have so much of a future to carry around with you.

  It resulted in massive, pathological procrastination.  Everything got put off in the name of perfectionism.  The future soon became the perfect time to do everything! Nothing was bold or joyfully created anymore.

  When you learn to go non-linear, a strange thing happens.  New life and energy come in. Life becomes a great game and everything important is handled right now on the spot. Like a ball coming over the volleyball net.

  All fear comes from picturing the future. Putting things off  increases that fear. Soon we are nothing but heavy minds weighing down on weary brains. Too much future will do that. Only a warrior's  approach will solve this. A warrior takes his sword to the future.

  Linear time starts with your birth and ends (at the end of the line) with your death. Along that long linear line it's just one damned thing after another. Then the lights go out. What was the point?  Non-linear time management stops all that weary nonsensical treading on the road to one's destiny. Rather than worming along horizontally you will simply rise up. Your life can now become vertical. Now you won't postpone challenges, you'll rise to them. You'll become a warrior.

1. Create an ongoing NOT TO DO list.

  For a deeper exploration of this idea, I highly recommend Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek, and his inspiring blog posts. Look at all the things you wasted your precious time doing in the past days and weeks. Can you stop? Make a list of the things you're not going to do anymore. That takes courage. Making a list of the things you hope to do takes no courage at all. It turns you into a lazy, busy dreamer. Yes, your being so outwardly busy suggests inner laziness!

2. Make tomorrow a vacation day.

  Notice how you behave the day before vacation. You are clear as a bell! People try to interrupt you or take your time and you say NO! "This MUST get completed because I won't be here tomorrow!" That's who you want to be every work day...the day-before-vacation you.

3. Use the six minute mind trick.

  List a bunch of tasks you've been putting off. Things you do NOT enjoy doing. Things you don't feel ready to dive into. Then take your timer out and set it for six minutes. Work item number one for six minutes only. When the timer dings, get up and walk around. Stretch, grab a bite, drink some water, watch TV for a bit...then come back to item number two. Six minutes only. Keep going throughout the day with this game. You will be ASTONISHED at all you get finished.

4. Give all your tasks away.

  Look at your long to-do list for today. Now give every task away. Ask someone else to do each one. You can use many different people as people you are delegating to, but be sure to give it all away. Now look at how your day has opened up. And look at how happy people are that you trust them and honor them with your projects. In my classes on this subject I deal with the common objections to this idea.

5. Reinvent yourself weekly.

  Most people wait for a major life crisis to reinvent themselves. So it only happens every ten years (if that often). You want to do it every Monday. Who do you want to be this week? Keep changing your character, like an actor rehearsing a role does, always growing into the ultimate creative personality. If you don't consciously, joyfully do this, you'll be stuck in the habitual you. You'll be doing things the way you've always done them, and you'll have no opportunities for dramatic innovation.

6. Choose GAME over SHAME.

 

  Most people motivate themselves by using shame. They try to get their energy and drive by identifying what they "should have done by now." This is a terrible time management and energy-management system, because using shame always brings you down...down to low moods and even lower levels of resourcefulness. We'll explore how to replace this shame-based system with a game-based approach. So you can play and win.

7. Meditate, sing, walk, dance and swim.

  All these activities free you up from the grips of the small mind and contracted ego. They expand your vision. They open the gates to your inner wisdom. They give you space in which miracles of insight can occur. All of a sudden you see that one of your big tasks doesn't have to be done at all! And another can be given away. And a third has an inherent solution! And a fourth......and it goes on and on until your to-do list is only a source of fun and fulfillment.

8. Eliminate the hidden, secret source of OVERWHELM.

  When people are "overwhelmed," they have promised too much. They have said YES to WAY too many people and requests. They have shot themselves in the foot with their mouth. And they do this over and over. But rather than seeing the source of this overwhelm as pleasing people, they look at the tasks themselves and think they are overwhelmed by "having too much to do and not enough time to do it." CREATIVE SERVICE is what you eventually replace this compulsive, addictive people-pleasing with.

9. Schedule your inspiration.

  When you're inspired, there is no problem with time or time management. Time flies. Time even disappears! You are inspired!

  But most people wait for inspiration to happen. Like an unexpected bolt out of the blue. Someone just happens to send them an amazing book. They just happen to go to a remarkable movie. They attend a talk they weren't going to attend, and they are totally inspired by the speaker.

  This is crazy. Why not build inspiration into your day? Why not guarantee inspiration? There are good ways to do this.

10. Convert obstacles into free weights.

  We want to stop asking the wrong questions. Usually, when we are faced with a big, annoying task or obligation, we ask, "How do I get myself to do this?" or "How long can I put this off without doing great harm to myself?" or "Why do other people not have such a problem with this?"

  You'll want to drop all that from now on and only ask, "How can I use this? What can I use this for? How do I make doing this a big PLUS in my movement toward my great purpose?" By asking what you can USE THIS for, you immediately change your relationship to it. You are now going to make it serve and strengthen you. In the old set of knee-jerk inquiries, it was only going to bring you down.

  You can watch my one hour video class on this subject (and other cool subjects) here:   en*theos Academy