Time Management and the Highly Sensitive Person

Time Management: Work, Home and the Highly Sensitive Person

By Peter Messerschmidt

Thoughts for Self-employed HSPs and other Creative Souls on Time Management: being organized and making the most of their time—without actual “organizing.”

Although these words were primarily written with the highly sensitive person (HSP) in mind, the ideas presented here could almost certainly be applied to any “creative” or “right brain” types who find it challenging to organize their time in such a way as to be more productive with their creativity. If you’re not entirely sure what an HSP is, please refer to my introductory article on this topic.

HSPs often struggle with concentration, organization and time management in their home work environments. Part of this can certainly be traced to the fact that most of us are intuitive types whose preferred thought patterns are distinctly “right brained;” that is, we depend a lot on intuition, gut feel, imagination and big picture thinking. Numbers are generally not our friends, and too much “structure” puts us off and can even feel overwhelming. In addition, it is common for HSPs to have a lot of interests, so focusing on any single one—like an important project—can be a challenge.

However, when you are self-employed and work from home, a measure of time management or “structure” becomes essential—your livelihood often depends on it. But not to worry! The only structure I’m advocating revolves around ways to work with how your creative brain is already wired.

Successful time management for HSPs doesn’t generally look much like time management for the rest of the world. For starters, “time” is actually not very important. It’s not about working “harder,” or working “longer;” it’s about working “smarter” and understanding how to make the most of your unique talents.

Time Management Tip #1 – An Environment to Inspire your Best Work

The process typically starts with assessing our surrounding environment. The importance of creating a suitable work space cannot be overstated; as HSPs we are easily distracted and annoyed by small things around us that most people would never notice. The initial objective is to be able to do important work in an area that minimizes the likelihood of distractions and interruptions. There are different ways to do this—they depend somewhat on the nature of your work.

One HSP created a “project alcove” away from her main home office. This rather minimalistic space had no telephone, and nothing more than the project she was currently working on was “allowed” in this space. It was set up in a corner of her house (in a guest room), away from house traffic flows. This allowed her to focus on the work at hand, without tempting distractions nearby. She still used her office extensively while doing more “general” work.

Another HSP—a writer—kept a separate laptop computer only for his writing. It helped him stay on task, and away from surfing the web or “switching” to other work related things he had going on.

However you approach “creating your workspace,” key elements are to avoid clutter, to be set up in a place that minimizes distractions, preferably in a location where you’re unlikely to be interrupted.

Also consider factors that make you feel at peace—without making you so restful you want to take a nap. This might include such things as paying attention to the color of the space, your chair, lighting, music and more. For HSPs—because we are very tuned into our environments—these are very important parts of developing an ideal workspace.

Time Management Tip #2 – Identify & Prioritize your Ideal Time

Next, to improve your productivity, consider your personal cycles. Be aware of when your mind is sharpest… as well as times when it feels like your brain has “the slows,” or you even feel like dozing off. You might discover that your best time for staying really focused and productive is early mornings. Or it might be after 11:00 at night, after you feel like “the day’s buzz is finally over.”

You might need to experiment a little, to find your “peak sharpness” time. Why? Just because you feel like you’re “restful” doesn’t necessarily mean your creativity is at its maximum. You are looking for the time when you feel the most wide awake.

Once you’ve established your best time—or it could be several times—for focus and concentration, you must take the step of making that time a top priority in your schedule. That is, this now becomes your “sacred work time.” So, if you know that your best work happens between 9:30 in the morning and noon, make that your time.

Make an effort to schedule the rest of your life around that time—coffee with friends, running errands, doctors’ appointments or lunch with your sister should all be scheduled at different times, so your peak productivity time is always available for you to focus on your creative endeavors. This may mean having to set certain personal boundaries with other people in your life.

Why is this so important?

When a highly sensitive person is “in the zone” and working on something they feel passionate about, they can actually produce an extraordinary amount of high quality work in a relatively short time. Two hours of concentrated and focused work time can result in far more getting done than ten hours of spotty “now and then” work.

As an example, the aforementioned HSP writer is often able to complete the writing assignments of a full-time job in less than three hours of “quality work time” per day. Using this strategy of “focused time,” he even wrote a full-length novel in just 23 days!

Time Management Tip #3 – Pancake Creativity

Another way to be more productive—in a “big picture” sense—is to make the most of how your creative brain works. HSPs not only tend to work in creative fields, their approach to work can be very creative, in and of itself. Lateral and divergent thinking are both common among the highly sensitive. What is also true is that our “best ideas” don’t always come to us during work time.

For example, as a writer, many of my best ideas for articles come to me while I am cooking breakfast– not when I sit down in front of the computer. I always keep a pad and pen handy, so I can actually “chase” these ideas, in writing, while they remain fresh. I call this “Pancake Creativity.”

My scribbled notes serve as enough of a reference point to come back to later, to develop the ideas fully during my normal work hours. It also removes the pressure of sitting down in front of a blank screen, worrying about what to write next. Since I started taking notes “on the fly” about ten years ago, I have not had a single case of so-called “writer’s block.”

Since most HSPs are ill suited to the “grind” of working endless 10-hour days, focusing on ways to “work smart” is far more important than simply trying to “grind it out.” Thus, time management for HSPs revolves around first creating the ideal work space, focusing on your best time for creative output… and then maximizing your use of those hours. Odds are your overall work capacity will increase considerably.

Some people find it challenging to follow such a routine because we have preconceived notions of the way work is supposed to “look.” Keep in mind that HSP brains are wired a little “differently” from the rest of the world, and the most important issue at hand is to make the most of your creative inspirations—not to impress others with your “ability to conform.”

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About the Author

Peter Messerschmidt is a writer, beach comber, rare stamp dealer and eternal seeker. When he’s not wandering the beach or the Internet, he facilitates groups & retreats for HSPs, and shares his musings at “HSP Notes,” the web’s oldest HSP-specific blog, at http://hspnotes.com. He lives in Port Townsend, WA with the great love of his life and several furry “kids.”