ENFP and INFP Time Management Tip

“There’s the time that it really takes to do something. But then there’s the anticipation time. The procrastination time. The nervous time.”

Today I want to share a really important time management tip for my ENFP and INFP folks. This came up for me recently when I spoke to a client and I just thought, that this is really something that you need to factor in when you’re trying to plan your days.

ENFP and INFP Time Management Tip

You know, if you are an idealist, you want to do so many things, you want to change the world, you want to take on as many projects as you can. This is especially true for us ENFPs and I’ve talked before about shiny object syndrome, and how to focus and how to do one thing at a time.

But I’ve also talked very recently about how we do our best work when we are busy, and we have pressure and we have lots to do.

Someone said this to me the other day, and I thought it was amazing. I was talking about when you have a day where you only have one thing to do, say you have one meeting from 3pm to 4pm. and I forget who said this to me, I wish I could give you credit, I apologize, but they said, “Yeah, you can build your whole day around that.” It’s true, right? If we only have one thing to do, we can end up kind of setting everything up around it and thinking way too much about it and wasting a lot of time, we’re really, really busy.

When we have things to do every hour, we tend to be more efficient, more effective, and at least in my case, I end up feeling a lot better at the end of the day as well.

But when you’re planning out your day, and you’re looking to see how much you can fit in or even planning out a whole month and thinking about taking on new projects, one thing that’s really important to consider is both the learning curve and let’s make up the same for the nervous curve. This happens when you’re doing something new, you get a lot more nervous about it.

Stop being nervous and get confident as an ENFP

I’ll give you an example. When I first started the Free Freelancer program (I’ve now just started the sixth class), before every group training I would be nervous for like a day or two before, and I’d be thinking about it. So there’s actual preparation time. But then there was also just a nervous time where I was actually prepared, there was no work I needed to do per se, but I’d be kind of nervous or thinking about it.

So if I had one of those calls in the evening, a lot of my day would sort of be taken up thinking about it, or I wouldn’t be nearly as productive as I would otherwise be. Because I was anticipating it and doing some kind of mental preparation in my unconscious, let’s say whereas now three years into doing the program, it’s one of the highlights of my day, I need very little preparation time and I have no problem having a full day of these calls, if anything, it’s something that excites me and adds more energy to my day.

But that wasn’t the case In the beginning, I’ve had the same experience doing in-person events. The first events, the week or two leading up to it, I would be nervous.

So that’s something to really consider when you’re setting up your weeks and your schedule, there’s the time that it clearly takes to do something, but then there’s the anticipation time, the procrastination time, the nervous time, and I don’t have a magical formula for how to factor that in for you. I do have some tips on it, maybe I’ll share at the end things that have helped me reduce that. But ultimately, it’s something that you need to think about when you’re trying to take on so many new things.

So there are a few things that have helped me deal with this and reduce the amount of time I waste in worry before something happens.

I’ve heard that “worry” is basically your brain preparing and trying to warn you of things that could go wrong and sometimes that is true.

I’m an ENFP, I’m allowed to be all over the map in other cases, I basically accepted that I do some of my best work last minute. For the rest, I am not procrastinating I’m not even thinking about it, because I’ve scheduled in the last minute time to do it. It may sound trivial, but it makes a really big difference. If you schedule in and commit to your last-minute work. You free up your brain from worry from the anticipation from all that and you allow yourself to just enjoy the time leading up to it or take on other projects and then get it done during that time.

So the two ways to approach it. One is to do things in advance and be really well prepared, which is something I’m trying out now or admit you’re going to do it last minute anyhow and just accept that and schedule it in and that way rather than procrastinate for three weeks leading up to something.

You’ll probably end up doing a higher quality job because you’ve had all that relaxed time before you really got into crunch time. So let me ask you below in the comments, answer what are your strategies to deal with the unknown and make sure you get things done while preserving at least a little bit of your sanity.