How is Your Time Line Organised?

Your memories, experiences, decisions are all collected over a period of time and these all determine how you interpret and understand the world. You may be the kind of person who is always on time, punctual and even too early. However, you may often be late and have no concept of time.  You may have difficulty managing your time each day or you may find that you work in two jobs and have time to study and do many other tasks. Everyone has the same amount of time in their day, some are better at managing their time than others.

Everyone has a time line and its purpose helps you to code the past, the present and the future, thereby knowing where the past was, the present and the future. Many of the techniques used in coaching are based on the idea that people will organise time either consciously or unconsciously in their minds to make sense of the world and their surroundings. So how do you organise time?

Now, stop for a moment and think of where your past is and where the future is for you. Consider the memories and experiences that have occurred in the past have a certain direction for you. These memories are stored in a certain location for you so that you can determine the difference between the past and your future.  There are also events which you have set in your future and which are different from your past as you have organised them differently. Now, point to the past and to the future. These may be from left to right, front to back, up or down or another combination. To what direction did you point for your past? To what direction did you point towards your future?

Your time line and your representation of it can either be “through time” or “in time”. If you have your time line through time then your time is organised either left to right, up to down, or in a ‘v’ shape where the past, present and future are all in front you. If you time line is through time then the time line does not intersect your body. If you are a in time person, then the time line will go through your body irrespective of whether its left to right, up to down or in a “v” shape or some other pattern.

There are many characteristics related to how you organise your time line as either through or in time. If you are through time then more than likely you are on time and know when you are late, store memories in a disassociated way (e.g. you see yourself in the memory rather than appearing through your own eyes), you may experience difficulty concentrating in a busy environment, you will establish deadlines at work and you will have a more orderly and planned existence. If you are in time (time line dissects your body) then if you are late by 15 minutes you may not be aware of it, you find it easier to be in the present (or the now), you can prefer to keep your options open and not make decisions immediately, you may have trouble sorting out tasks and you look at work and play being the same thing. You will enjoy a spontaneous and flexible or open ended existence.

Your time line is all about how you interpret the world and organise your events as being past, present and future. How is your time line organised?