Audio recording of the workshop
presented at the 1998 Annual Conference of the State Bar of California
Where's the Pressure Come From? The pressure and anxiety associated
with deadlines are not features built into time, not 'facts of
life' that we have to put up with. On the contrary, pressure
is really a sign that we are struggling with our work. In fact,
the strength of the pressure we feel seems to be directly
proportional to how much we're resisting what we're doing.
Struggling with work is unnecessary, stressful, and a waste of
our energy. If we can learn how to directly transform the pressure,
we can realize significant gains in both productivity and well-being.
Having researched the causes of deadline pressures since 1988,
in 1997 I identified what I believe to be the essential factors
involved. The primary factor is not what most of us would guess:
our typical way of experiencing time flowing from moment to moment.
The ordinary, yet relentless flow of time sets up the trap for
deadline pressure. The trap is sprung by a triggering emotion,
like fear of damaging one's reputation by not finishing something
on time. The emotion intensifies the 'normal' sense of time passing
so it usually feels that time's passing more quickly and the
deadline is closing in on us. If we can become aware of such
emotions, we can easily relieve a lot of the pressure.
But no matter what the particular triggering feeling is, deadline
pressure is simply an intense and constricted version of our
usual perception of time flowing. Most people don't think it's
possible to change the feeling of time's flow. However, we can
change it, and anything we do to loosen it up will serve to relieve
some of the pressure that is always with us, and actually prevent
strong pressures from ever getting established!
After identifying these essential factors, I developed this
workshop to relieve pressure and improve productivity and well-being
at the same time. It seems I am currently the only person offering
this cutting-edge training that directly transforms deadline
pressure. Although the principles and methodology of this program
have not been widely available, they are the result of twenty
years of research, development, and application.
Stephen Randall, Ph.D.
Possible Benefits of the "Taking the Pressure Out of
Deadlines" workshop:
You will:
- no longer be run by the feeling that you don't have enough
time
- quickly cut through pressure and anxiety about time and get
more done
- be better able to find the 'zone' of peak performance
- notice a greater sense of effortlessness in the flow of your
work
- use mental and physical exercises to effectively transform
time pressure while improving productivity
- find that work is a better source of fulfillment, insight,
and peak experience
At this workshop you can learn:
How Is the Seminar Structured?
This seminar is a combination of presentation, discussion,
and mental and physical exercises. Results
in No Time, a book on inner time management (not
conventional time management--see "Performance
and Well-Being Depend on the Paradigm of Time"), is
available to reinforce and expand upon the seminar.
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Endorsements:
People loved the deadline pressure workshop. Sue's doing much
better. She's been using your breathing technique and everything
else. She's a high stress gal, too, on the move all the time.
. . . It helped out George. He's got a little more organized,
and he's not so tense. He's getting better at finishing things.
--manager at a title company
Your portrayal of time as a kind of conveyor belt passing
through past, present, and future rooms . . . followed by the
exercise where we turned our usual [temporal] perspective around,
produced a real shift in consciousness, a new perception of time.
--Rev. Stan Hampson, Palo Alto Unity Church
For me the whole concept of looking at time in a different
way was something I had never thought about before, and so I
struggled with that through the day. . . . And yet experiencing
it through some of those exercises . . . Part of me was saying
"Oh, this isn't possible," and the other part was saying
"Oh, this is wonderful!" . . . I think you really have
something rather terrific there. --Lauretta Spenader, HR Department,
Syntex Labs
I learned a lot . . . helped me get through an extremely difficult
deadline pressure situation at work. --Hewlett-Packard employee
Since your workshop on psychological time I have gained three
hours of effective living a day. --Daliya Robson.
The tools you gave me at this workshop will last a lifetime.
--Marilyn Bankert.
Highlights and Key Points:
Why is this workshop important?:
- "According to almost three of every four of the executives
. . . the most stressful situation was the one that occurred
most frequently: work demands and time pressures." (Coping
with Executive Stress, Richard E. Winter, M.D.)
- "I would say that 95 percent of the stress in our lives
relates to our feeling of time poverty." (Time Shifting,
Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D.)
- Until we learn to control time consciously, our lives will
continue to speed away from us, and we won't even notice the
beauty or the events around us. We'll simply be left with the
feeling that something's missing, something's disappeared."
(p. 14, Time Shifting)
- Today, for individuals as well as for members of the workforce,
shifting rhythm is essential not only to physical and mental
well-being, but also to improved productivity. A good many management
consultants believe this as much as I do. (p. 150, Time Shifting)
- The business community, in particular, is fast realizing
that changes are necessary. Many corporations are aware that
they need to alter how they perceive time and its relationship
to personal satisfaction if they mean to remain competitive.
This change of attitude is gaining wide acceptance as more businesses
tabulate the economic and social implications of an unsatisfied
or unfulfilled work force. (p. 12, The Tao of Time, Hunt
and Hait)
Conventional time management practices such as prioritizing
and scheduling can often make big dents in disorganization and
lack of clarity about objectives and priorities, both of which
contribute to time pressure.
Our culture teaches that pressure is somehow built into deadlines
themselves, that there's something objectively 'real' about deadline
pressure.
Did you have a deadline where you somehow changed the pressure?
If so, this seems to indicate that the pressure really isn't
built into the deadline.
Pressure somehow depends on the way we relate to the deadline.
It depends on our perspective, on how much we're involved in
what we're doing.
We have different verbs to indicate the degree to which we're
involved in what we're doing. I might be 'holding back', which
means I have something to do, but I'm resisting it. Perhaps I
think about it, but then put it out of my mind. If I get a little
more involved, I'll 'resign myself to' doing the job. Basically
that seems to mean I'm not just putting it out of my mind any
longer. With a bit more involvement, I 'get into' the job. A
bit more, and I say 'I'm involved'. Involved means 'turned into'.
A bit more, and I'm preoccupied, absorbed, or engrossed.
How does the feeling of pressure relate to your changing involvement?
If you consider your past experiences, when you got more involved,
what happened to the pressure?
The pressure we feel is directly proportional to how
much we're resisting what we're trying to get done. "A
watched pot never boils." Taking a position apart from what's
happening affects the way time is experienced.
If pressure depends on our perspective, can this be broken
down into different factors? The primary factor is our feeling
of time passing (FTP), our feeling of time flowing. This
results from resisting past experiences. Repressed feelings are
transformed into our sense of time flowing. The other factor
is situational feelings, feelings like fear or embarassment
that we don't want to feel about the present situation. These
add energy to the situation, they intensify the 'normal' pressure
of our FTP.
Our typical deadline perspective is that we're in the present
looking off toward the distant future where there's a deadline,
and the deadline is relentlessly closing in on us. Every
time we think about the deadline closing in on us, there's anxiety
and pressure, because we 'realistically' might not have enough
time to get the work done on time. But during peak work performance
we're usually so absorbed in what we're doing that there's no
awareness of time flowing.
Under a deadline there's usually dissatisfaction or a lack
of fulfillment here in the present. It might feel like we're
being squeezed or confined, overwhelmed, or there can be a sense
of impending doom. But during peak work performance we feel invigorated,
whole, and happy with the way things are going.
Under a deadline the work feels stressful and takes quite
a bit of effort. But during peak work performance the
work may be requiring mental or physical energy, but it doesn't
feel very stressful. The work might even seem to be effortless
in a sense, flowing with a momentum of its own.
Under a deadline it's as if the conveyer of time carries
equal sized containers for our activities. Equal units of
clock time seem to hold equal and limited potential for accomplishing
things. Estimating how long it will take to finish the task is
based on the perception of equal capacity/unit of time as well
as how long it took to accomplish things in the past. Work
capacity seems fixed. But during peak work performance,
instead of fixed flow of conveyor with equal-sized containers,
time seems very flexible and changeable, even unpredictable.
There's a sense of everpresent opportunity and possibility:
perhaps, for example, we'll get some insight on how the work
process can be improved.
Feeling pressured, anxious, hurried, and overwhelmed are part
of linear time perspectives, but never part of timeless views.
So a question to ask is, "In a deadline scenario is there
anything that keeps it from becoming a peak experience?"
Our feeling of time is totally a result of repressing or
suppressing negative feeling or emotion that we don't want to
feel and attend to.
Negativity seems to be part of a particular way of relating
to something, a way in which we stand apart, as a detached and
judging observer.
Our typical way of estimating time is based on the concept
that each and every unit of clock time holds the same limited
capacity for accomplishment.
Most of our lives seem to be spent trying to get to goals
up ahead, in the future. We expect that we'll be happier later
on, after we complete that project. But the quality of our
experience--the natural fulfillment that is available no
matter what we're doing--is depreciated by a habitual perspective
of looking forward to things.
Pressure doesn't seem to be built into certain jobs; it
seems to be added to neutral situations because of our attitude,
perspective, or confusion about values and goals.
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