Do you know your time type?
Since year 2000, I have helped many thousand leaders and employees strengthen their personal efficiency, and I have concurrently developed the time type universe The three time types ®: The time optimist, the time realist and the time pessimist.
The time types indicate different ways of perceiving and relating to time, and your personal time type has great influence on how you plan and prioritise your time.
The time optimist
Take e.g. the time optimist. He has a great ability to be present and work under pressure, but often forgets that tasks and humans take time. Seldom time is planned to carry out tasks, follow up or for travel time, and the optimist's mantra is: ”It only takes five minutes".
The time realist
The time realist, on the other hand, is consciously planning time to carry out tasks, prepare meetings and travel. The realist often puts in time buffers, but sometimes get pushed to one side by the unpredictability of his daily life. If this happens, the time realist will try to make a new plan.
The time pessimist
Planning and extra time for the unforeseen are musts for the time pessimist who often has an utmost realistic and sometimes strained relationship to time. The pessimist is very devoted to duty and always keeps the schedules and deadlines. The worst thing you can do to a time pessimist is to present delays or several unknown factors.
Time tracking; a simple way to test your time type:
1. Start by making a to do list for the coming work day or week.
2. Estimate how much time you need for each task.
3. Follow up on estimates and note how much time you really spent on each task.
4. You will quickly see if you have a tendency to under- or overestimate you time when planning. Or maybe your estimates are spot on?
Besides getting to know your time type, you can use time tracking to get more realistic in your planning.
