Do you have emergency NET time backup plans?
By that I mean, if something comes along that disrupts your plans and means you can’t do what you had planned with that time, but you find you could use it as NET time.
Do you have a process or plan to make sure you use that time wisely preserving your feelings of happiness and progress?
Maybe you have no idea about what I am talking about! What is this NET time you speak of? I’ve previously written about NET and other time habits of busy, successful people.
I am not talking about time stealers or time wasters – those are subjects for another post. What I am talking about is when something comes along that you have to do right now and it is important.
Something you cannot delegate to someone else at that moment, so it takes up time you had allocated for something else. It’s probably best illustrated by an example!
This topic was inspired by what happened last Wednesday!
My usual morning routine includes planning out my day and setting myself 1 to 3 things to accomplish that move me towards my ultimate goals, dreams and outcomes.
That way, I review at the end of the day and easily know that I had a winning day.
I am well aware that some things don’t always go to plan! And I consider myself to be pretty adaptable.
I am a big planner and usually make sure I have backup plans.
So what happened last Wednesday, could easily have blindsided me and changed the whole outcome of my day.
The Perfect Storm!
It was one of those days. There were a lot of moving parts in my day. Most were going on around me, but they were important for my family.
I actually, didn’t need to be involved in any of them, until one change of plans meant I had to go fill my car with fuel.
On the way to the petrol station, the tyre pressure alert sensor triggered. I knew this happened a few weeks ago too, so I figured I would just put in some air at the garage and it would be okay.
However, I also knew that my youngest daughter would be driving the car for the next few days, and I didn’t want her to have the inconvenience or worse of having to get the tyre changed.
Sidebar
Notice that this was not a trivial thing – something non-urgent or unimportant. It was regarding my daughter’s immediate safety – a young driver driving a car with a slow leaking tyre.
So, I made a quick decision that I would fill up the car with fuel and head straight to the tyre repair shop.
I was aware that my daughter needed the car in an hour and the repair shop promised me I would be back on the road in that time.
What had started as a 5 minute trip around the corner to fill up with petrol had turned into an hour plus chunk out of my day.
I had two outcomes I wanted to fulfil – keep my energy in the positive and still win my overall day.
I asked myself…
What can I do right now that will bring me closer to my dreams, goals or outcomes?
Luckily, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to asking myself questions in order to find useful things to do while waiting around for hours. As a mother of two very sporty girls, I am used to juggling their needs around creating lifestyle businesses over the years.
This time, I got a flood of answers and options such as:
- Listen to a podcast, training or audiobook on my phone. (A little tricky as I hadn’t brought my earphones with me on my quick trip to the petrol station!)
- Use the apps on my phone to rearrange my calendar, make some notes in OneNote, or research something on my list of things to do next.
- Get my steps up, by having a walk around the area.
- Strengthen my deep breathing practices.
- Sit quietly and do a meditation or gratitude practice.
- Connect to myself giving myself some self-love and connecting to others and sending out love to them.
- Daydream my future goals and enrich the dreams and feelings as I walk through a future scenario in my fulfilling life.
- Strike up a conversation with someone to make a connection.
- Reach out to a friend with who I haven’t connected in a while.
As you can imagine, by asking this question, my state was open and creative and the time flew by. In fact, that is exactly how this blog post was conceived and written!
Creating Your Emergency NET Time BackUp Plans
Do you have an Emergency NET time backup plan for when things don’t go according to plan?
And how long could you keep going before you would revert to getting frustrated at the wasted time?
If I only had one thing on my list, I might get through that and then revert to thinking about the inconvenience.
By having several, I knew that I could finish one and then choose another.
If you are someone who hasn’t used NET before, then a little brainstorming ahead of time can give you a menu of options to choose from – like mine above.
That way, when the time comes, you don’t have to think too hard about what is possible.
I have refined it even further, after reviewing my day too! I decided to buy a second pair of earphones for my phone that I can leave in the car, so if something like this happens again, I have even more options!
What do you do when you get blindsided by something and have to change plans?
There is no such thing as wasted time – only wasted opportunity.
Action Steps
- Brainstorm ahead of time, some easy to do NET time activities that move you forward towards your ultimate fulfilling life.
- Create yourself a menu of things you can do and the contingencies in case you find yourself:
- with a phone or without a phone,
- with headphones or without
- with suitable clothes and shoes for walking/exercise or without
- with a pen and notepad or without
Create some fulfilling options you can swap in if you need to at a moments notice.
I’d love to hear some of your fulfilling options,
LIVE, LOVE & THRIVE