Poisoning of Time

fixing "Poisoned Time" focuses on optimizing limited energy by identifying and aligning actions with our core physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs.

Author

Peter DePaulo
February 16, 2024

Fixing "Poisoned Time" focuses on optimizing limited energy by identifying and aligning actions with our core physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs.

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)

In the Desert.

The circles danced into fractal patterns of light on the ground. The Alchemist gathered herself and pushed into the depths of the void within.

"Where do we start?" she inquired
"The Beginning, of course" a deep voice emanated in her mind. A stoic figure, only half seen, draped in a robe of constellations and nebulae emerged in her field of appearances.
"Chronos! I thought that the horsemen killed you!"
"I cannot be killed. Only slowed," the father of time replied
"Fair enough. Where is the beginning?" The traveler questioned.
"Now"

Poison of Time (Workshop)

I'm excited by this topic. It's the most nuanced and pervasive challenge we face when we're taking on time. Another way of talking about "poisoned time" is to speak simply about how much energy we have for a given task or event

You have only so much energy to spend on things; it's a finite resource. This is a way to make it easy to remember how resourced you are and where the resource comes from.

The most important thing to remember about the Time Alchemy attitude: it all starts with YOU. You need to assess what things fuel you and what drain you. What resources you have for activities are dependent on your core preferences, behavior and personality. We talked about these in terms of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual buckets.

The idea of Poisoned Time is that you have less resources than normal because of a modified state of being. The classic example is "hungover" where you don't have the energy to do the things you love because you feel much worse than normal. However, this extends to things like sleep deprivation. Where you just can't allocate your energy to a task because the tank is empty.

Fixing it.
Do we quit drinking? Quit staying up late? Not quite.

In order to fix poisoned time we have two dials to twist: the amount of energy we cultivate outside of poisoned time and how we can redirect the energy during poisoned time.

I'll start with transforming the time that's already poisoned. It comes down to the question: "is there any way to transform this into recharge time?" For example, maybe you have a ton of meetings on your schedule, can you cancel them and take the day off? That's the extreme version, but it points to the theme.

Here are some specific easy tips:

  • Physical:

    • Sleep: Stop working/emailing at least 30min before bed.

    • Alcohol: Limit to 1 drink per night, stop drinking at least 3hrs before bed.

    • Food: Stop eating at least 2hrs before sleep.

    • Exercise: Go for an extra walk per week, even just around the block.

  • Emotional:

    • Initially, observe what triggers negative thoughts.

    • Later, address automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) as suggested by Jim Kwik.

  • Mental:

    • Mute notifications during creative work.

  • Spiritual:

    • Clarify your values, identify the most important one to align your life with.

We got deep into cultivating energy in the workshop, so definitely check that out if you feel drawn to it. The basic premise is employing the Core Strategy of Time Alchemy: start easy, be strict with the definition of success and flexible with the execution. The strict definition comes from you around what you prioritize.

We don't have time for every detail here, but that's the intro!

Events

Community announcement

We're going to keep the community free until we reach 100 people. So, jump on in if you want to engage and share your time hacks with your fellow Time Alchemists. We're only at a handful, but at the start of March we expect to fill up quick! https://www.skool.com/time-alchemy-3771