How A Timer Helps You Practice Better Boundaries

 

If you're anything like me, then you're having difficulty keeping up with the pace of life as it passes by in front of you. After scrolling through your smartphone for 20 minutes then you get up and get started without breakfast. Then, before you know it, the time is 11:00 am and you've worked on your project for a long time.

How did we get to this level? It's not uncommon for you to take just a minute longer to complete an assignment before you even realise it. The most effective solution I've found to help you when it seems like you're slipping behind is very simple: use an alarm clock.

This little but powerful productivity tool has enabled me to set more limits, to learn better time management, and makes me less anxious about the clock ticking.

A Timer is so helpful

I'm officially one of those people who utilizes an countdown timer. If I have to get something done but know that I really love sitting in my sofa I set a timer to remind myself to get up within 20 minutes. If I only have 30 minutes to finish an admin block, I create the timer to help me complete as much as possible.

A timer can help you manage your time. It's empowering to feel that I'm tracking my the clock so that I don't linger around mindlessly all day long. As we frequently say at Productive Flourishing, when you break down your tasks into chunks, it's much more manageable to get things accomplished.

This turns out to be the same with regard to time. It can appear more spacious and less overwhelming if you break it into smaller time blocks.

There are days where my executive functioning is not even a little bit good. This is because I have too many thoughts, many things to do, and so many needs that I must manage before I am able to get going.

If even the simplest decisions feel complicated, what should one do? The time machine cannot perform the in-and-out breathing for you, but it could make your day less overwhelming. You may not be able to control what will happen in the coming 24 hours, but you are able to determine what you'll do for the next 20 minutes. Also, for the next 20 minutes following that.

Take a deep breath in and out, place some faith in the timerand trust in yourself. Everyone has difficult days when we're not functioning properly. There are times where it's just too hard and you don't know what to do to escape it.

In these moments, when my brain that kicks into gear when stuff needs to be completed is exhausted to go to work, I'm always able to count on the timer. It's outside of my control, and will continue to tick regardless. It's the tough days that I tend to use the timer the most.

This is a reference to an episode from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Kimmy stated that you could keep anything in place for 10 seconds, and after that you can restart with a new 10. This principle is what I use to stay focused and to be more efficient. You can often do something for a short time then continue doing it for at least 15 minutes until you have completed the entire time working on it.