My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

I promised you a time management article or post on alternative approaches to time management. So here goes:

Here’s Abraham Hicks:

Their most famous approach is the Place Mat Process:

Here is how it works:

You write down your to-do list (if you haven’t already).

Then, you take a big sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle and write a REASONABLE number of items on the left side, underneath the heading “Things I am going to do TODAY.”

Make sure there are only enough things that you can comfortably finish. No pushing yourself.

Then, on the other side, you write the heading, “Things for the Universe to do”

And write everything else underneath that heading.

Okay, I know, this may sound a bit crazy, BUT…

You’re human. You can only do what you can do, and there’s no point in pushing yourself beyond that or for feeling bad about the fact that you can’t do it all.

The thing is that a considerable number of those things you have assigned to Universe will be done by the Universe, one way or another.

And the next day, you go over the list, look on the Universe’s side to see whicfh one of those you want to tackle that day, and put them on your own side.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Here’s the thinking behind this exercise:

Things go MUCH better when you’re feeling good and well-rested. Otherwise, you’re just sabotaging yourself. Your vibrations will be off-kilter.

In fact, in other places in the Abraham books, they focus even more directly on the feel good “mandate.”

I just read an older book and was stunned at the clear instructions there — even easier than the placemat process. If you’re stressed or overwhelmed, the first item of the agenda must be to get to a better feeling place. No ifs and buts here.

So then, what do you do?

Here’s a cool line from a famous poem by David Wagoner:

LOST

What do you do when you’re lost in the forest?

Stand still.

The trees ahead, the bushes beside you are not lost.
Wherever you are is called here…

It’s a powerful poem, in his collection “Traveling Light”

It’s also recited frequenty by David Whyte and others.

The point of it is that when you’re overwhelmed and lost, stand still.

Abraham recommends to stop, back up to a place where you feel good,
then start over from that good feeling place.

Now I realize this is almost the antithesis of traditional time management, where it’s all about beating yourself up and sticking with your agenda etc.

But give it a try.

As I mentioned in the other post, when I’m tired I’m hugely less effective. When I’m stressed, I’m practically non-functional. So the agenda has to be to get some rest, and to get rid of the stress.

For the stress thing, check out my free stress tips report or my free eft ebook (and my not quite so free ebook that right now comes with a special stress relief hypnosis audio bonus).

And for a time management approach that focuses on the feel good thing, try Jason’s outstanding time management course.

I was going to write about Bill Burns’ approach too, but that would make this time management article too long, so I’ll write another post

Enjoy your day

Do you know the Abraham-Hicks Placemat Process?

It’s the most amazing tool you could possibly have in your tool box when you often feel overwhelmed by to-do lists. It works wonders for giving you stress relief.

The fact is, we lead linear lives.  No matter how skilled we may think we are at multi-tasking, we can only be in one place at the same time.  And we really can only do one task properly at each moment.

We may be able to alternate our attention back and forth, and sometimes this may be necessary, but for most of us it increases stress and for some of us it gets us nowhere fast.

So what’s the placemat process? It’s based on the idea that we can only do so much and still be effective, and that we don’t really have to do all of it. There’s a force out there greater than us that helps us out.

Have you ever noticed that some things you just didn’t get to seemed to take care of themselves in miraculous ways? Or they didn’t seem all that important anymore? Or you got a chance to do them much later and it was okay?

Those are all signs that something greater than us is helping us and guiding our subconscious.  The main thing is that we must stop stressing. And the placemat process helps with that.

Here are the instructions:

Get a big piece of paper (placemat size works well):

Draw a line down the middle.

Write a reasonable number of items that you MUST get done today on the left side. Title that section: Things I will do today.

Write everything else that you think you ought to get done etc. on the other side. Title that section: Things I’m turning over to the universe.

And then just do the things on your list.

Also keep track of how many of the Universe’s list will get done. You may be surprised.

You can read about the Abraham Hicks placemat process in “Ask and it is given” by Jerry and Esther Hicks, and in many other of their publications.

If you’re in internet marketing or another fast-paced line of work where you feel like you have to get a tremendous amount done, you may also want to check out

http://www.IMTimeMastery.com

It’s written by a former Buddhist monk, it’s quite amazing, and I’m very excited to be able to offer it to you:

http://www.IMTimeMastery.com

If you want more traditional advice, you can also sign up for my FREE time management tips series:

http://www.IMTimeManagement.info

But don’t forget — there’s only one you and you need to take care of yourself, which includes pacing yourself and allowing yourself rest when you need it, to be able to do what you need to do and to fulfill your destiny.

Have a wonderful and relaxed day, and do give the placemat process a go if you haven’t already.
You may find it’s the greatest stress management tool you’ll have ever found.  Because much stress comes from time “running away from us” and us trying to keep up.

Elisabeth, aka Dr. K

And here’s a related blog post on time management.