The Power of Now

Planning and scheduling, time management, calendaring, and week at a glance all have one thing in common. Anticipating and doing things later.

I wanted to touch on something different. The power of now.

I like to plan and execute a plan. Map out a day and check things off, accomplishing and doing. Feels good to get things done.

However, there are always unforeseen events that derail plans, and throw things out of sync. This is inevitable. Planning is proactive, managing time is proactive, but sometimes we need to be reactive.

Sometimes the best time to do things is right now. Don’t put off doing something until it can be properly planned, when just doing it will take care of whatever the issue is.

The best example I can think of is taking care of the mail. Junk mail goes in the trash right now. (Unless of course you are working on copywriting and collect and studying the junk mail, then you’d just file it.) Deal with the mail as it hits, not piling it up to look at later.

When I had an office job, the thing I hated to do was file. I had a section on my desk for “to file” when the file pile got really big I’d spend time filing everything. Sometimes it would take over an hour! If I’d just file as I went along I would have avoided the necessity of planning to file. The power of now. I wouldn’t say I could have saved time, because you cannot spend or save time. However, I would say there is an opportunity cost of procrastination. The time used to file may have been used for other purposes.

The power of now can be used to keep things off a to do list, or kept out of future planning.

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after. If you do that you will always have many things on your list. Remember the power of now can keep things of future to do lists, and give you more freedom to take care of those things that matter most.

Good luck.