Ways to Shift From a Time Scarcity Mindset to a Time Abundance Mindset

Hello, how are you doing today?

In my last article on fostering a time management mindset in a remote work setup, I briefly talked about the time scarcity vs the time abundance mindset. As promised, I’m back with my next article on shifting your mindset towards time.

In this article, I will be discussing time scarcity, the root cause behind it, and ways to adopt a time abundance mindset.?

Before coming to the foremost topic, I would like you to answer this question.

Do you often catch yourself saying any of the following phrases???

• “I don’t think there are enough hours given to complete this project.”
• “I don’t have time for that.”
• “There just aren’t enough hours in a day.”
• “I need to find the?time for that.”

I am sure you must have heard or used these phrases numerous times. After observing my language for a while, I was surprised to see just how deeply rooted my own and our culture’s scarcity attitude towards time is.

This scarcity attitude of ours towards time affects us, both on an emotional and professional level. It drives us to make decisions that are weighted to the short term. It creates sadness for all the things we don’t have time for or for opportunities we have lost.

Let’s find out the root cause of having a time scarcity mindset.

Poor time management: The greatest nemesis of time abundance?

Being busy doesn’t always mean you are being productive, sometimes it means you are just bad at managing your time.?

It’s our poor time management skills that encourage our time scarcity mindset. It makes us blame the situation and not our execution strategy.?

Causes of the time scarcity mindset

Let’s go through some of the principal causes of this mentality:

Failing to set our priorities

Some people are unable to prioritize their tasks based on their urgency. A situation like this often leads to overburdening and delayed deadlines.?

Setting unrealistic goals

Some people tend to set goals that are impossible to achieve in a given timeline. This leads to developing a time scarcity mindset and ends up with no accomplished outcomes.???

Procrastinating

Procrastination is the common experience of putting a task off until insufficient time is left before a deadline. There are numerous reasons for procrastinating, such as habit, perfectionism, and unclear goals.?

Not having clear goals

An individual needs to identify his ultimate goal for dividing his time and resources accordingly. Not having a clear goal makes every task seem equally important which results in multitasking and low work quality.

Failing to manage distractions

Distractions are the biggest enemy of deadlines. Whether it’s the phone that keeps ringing or notifications that you keep receiving from different social media platforms, distractions break our workflow and creative process.?

Top 4 Ways to adopt a time abundance mindset

Time management is the key to making the most of your time and achieving the life that you dream of. Stop thinking of time as a resource that’s out of your control. There are indeed only a limited number of hours in a day, but they are enough for you to focus your attention on what matters.?

Follow these top 5 ways to improve time management and allow your brain to zero in on your highest-value outcomes without getting swept up in distractions.

Know your priorities

For managing your time efficiently, it’s very important to know your priorities. The straightforward way of doing so is to use the Covey time management grid. This grid helps you rank your tasks by how urgent and important they are, using four quadrants:

• Write the tasks that are important and should be completed on an urgent basis in Quadrant 1.?
• Write the tasks that are important but don’t involve impending deadlines in Quadrant 2.
• Write the tasks that are time-sensitive but not so important in Quadrant 3.
• Write the tasks that are not important as well as don’t involve impending deadlines in Quadrant 4.

Say no to multitasking

Numerous times, we tend to multitask to achieve results fast but in reality, only 2% of people are good at multitasking while the rest 98% end up wasting their time when they try to multitask, according to research by Mashable.

Instead of burdening ourselves with numerous tasks, we must try to focus on just one task at a time. It is the perfect way to reach the epitome of productivity in very little time.

Start using a time tracker

The easiest way to keep track of every single minute of the day is by using reliable time tracking software. A time tracking software helps you:

• Divide your working time efficiently
• Maintain a record of total work done?
• Stay productive

For me, The KonarkPro time tracker has done miracles. It has helped me achieve all of the things mentioned above and much more.

Change your attitude towards time

Lastly and most importantly, change your mindset towards time. Whenever you feel like you don’t have enough time to complete a task before its deadline, take a deep breath, focus on your positive energy, believe in yourself, and say “ “I have an abundance of time.”

Repeat after me “I have an abundance of time.”

Until next time. Tell me how that works for you in the comments below.