Impulsive and Cliff Hanger Time Management Styles
This article compares Impulsive vs. Cliff Hanger time management styles. The truth is both Impulsive and Cliff Hanger personality types struggle with time. To compare them though, let’s start with an overview of each style preference.
The Time Management Style Impulsive describes someone who loves the rush of leaping before they look. While the Cliff Hanger time style personalities are typically cautious. They prefer to postpone decisions until the last minute, often waiting and stretching deadlines.
Impulsive style types erroneously believe: “Time is of the essence, if I don’t act now, the opportunity will disappear.” vs. Cliff Hanger types who believe “There will be a right time or a sign that will show me when to do something.”
The problem is, both of these beliefs about time are false. And when false beliefs drive behavior, they can quickly and easily get you into hot water.
Your Natural Tendency To Take Action
When comparing Impulsive and Cliff Hanger time management styles we look at one’s ability to ‘take action’ in different situations.
To check in on your own time management style, ask yourself, do you prefer to:
- Initiate action immediately or wait for more information or assistance.
- Recognize when an important opportunity presents itself.
- Consider the possible consequences when choosing between several alternatives.
- Leave room for changes in plans or unseen events?
- Use an adrenaline rush as a primary impetus?
Comparing the two styles of Impulsive and Cliff Hanger can help you learn more to you forward. When you learn more and better understand your unique Time Management Style personality preferences you heighten your self-awareness. Knowing yourself helps you dramatically shift your ability to create sustainable time management systems. Knowing which time style personality types describe you will help you create time management systems to support your natural habits to increase productivity and flow for work and life!
The Impulsive time style client case study
Impulsive personalities love to leap, but often forget to look first.
My client, Larry, thrives on the sense of freedom he experiences when he acts spontaneously. He’s not really comfortable with the idea of planning because he thinks that planning limits his ability to change direction as needed. He also gets bored quickly and likes to keep his options open.
What Larry had trouble understanding was that once he began to hire employees, it became more difficult to indulge his natural time management operating style. What felt natural to him (and had historically worked) wasn’t very helpful for the people on his team. His people needed a way to proceed – a system for scheduling and forecasting – in order to feel prepared to deal with unanticipated situations. While Larry was inclined to ‘wing it’ and felt comfortable responding situationally, his employees wanted more direction and a planned approach to more systematically respond to situations that could arise.
Planning vs. Spontaneity Focussed
When managing your time, it’s important to understand that plans don’t have to tie you down. Both Impulsive vs. Cliff Hanger types can plan. And, plans can be viewed as potential strategies for moving ahead and don’t have to be carved in stone. The larger the group of people who are called on to respond in a given situation, the more important plans and systems become to maintain consistency, especially in business. Since Larry has seen this view and has accepted this concept, he has been able to do longer-term planning that includes others and makes room for contingencies and new possibilities.
The truth is, regardless of preferences we each have more flexibility and choices available to us than most people realize.
Cliff Hanger Time Management Style Personality
On the opposite end of the ‘taking action’ continuum is a Cliff Hanger Time Management Style type who is equally fond of adrenaline rushes.
Cliff Hanger’s use deadlines as a trigger to shift into gear late in the game. This often ends up playing against them far more frequently than is sustainable.
Relying on adrenaline to help you focus often doesn’t leave enough time to check work thoroughly or to handle things that might go wrong. Waiting to start until the last moment can cause added stress and even missed deadlines.
When comparing Impulsive styles vs. Cliff Hangers, though, you’ll not differences. Those people who score very dominant as Cliff Hanger styles are not your average procrastinators. They may put things off because of fear, discomfort, or inadequate information. But, the key distinction is they BELIEVE (and in most cases) they do their best work at the last minute.
The Cliff Hanger Client Case
Melissa sought my advice after receiving a negative job evaluation from her boss. She was told that the quality of her work suffered from careless mistakes and incomplete follow-through.
Melissa knew she waited too long to begin an assignment but insisted that the delay gave her more energy with which to attack the task.
What I soon realized was that Melissa had no idea how long each task actually took. Melissa had never learned how long typical tasks took her to complete. Further, she never reconciled her internal clock with the one on the wall. So we began by having her keep a time log of her work and she was stunned by the actual number of hours required to complete a task. We then created a Backwards Scheduling chart to estimate the overall time required and marked off the date she needed to start in order to finish each part of the sequence on time. Learning more about her dominant time style personality really helped her solve a life-long time management struggle.
Each time style including Cliff Hangers can find it challenging to eliminate their natural tendencies. So we discussed how Melissa might be able to indulge her Cliff-hanging urges from time to time. By ranking her priorities and scheduling time for the most important ones first, we were able to help her. She chose to only procrastinate and put off work on her least important tasks.
Impulsive and Cliff Hanger – How To Manage Your Time Style
Create organizing and time management systems to support your personal time style preferences.
When you endeavor to create routines, habits, and systems for your personal idiosyncrasies you will have more success. Knowing yourself helps encourage your individual expression and introduce creative ways to increase productivity and flow.
Figuring out whether you’re dominance is an Impulsive and Cliff Hanger Time Style preference will help you integrate Flow Steps into your experience.
The 6 Time Management Style Personality Preferences are: The Time & Space Style Inventory™ (TSSI™) evaluates your time style preferences and how you manage priorities, attend to details, and take action. By learning your dominant and strong time style preferences, you can learn to make the most of your time. Also, heightened self-awareness helps you choose to take actions that increase natural flow in your life. Consistently taking the Flow Steps in your styles of dominance will help you successfully manage your self, and your decisions about time.
What to do next
- What about these two style preferences resonates for you?
- Do you have any examples, tricks, or techniques to share of your own?
- Get curious! Stay in the moment and press pause.
- Noticing helps reveal data and develop techniques to manage your time.
EMBRACE your natural time style personality with the TSSI!
Make time work for you! Take the Time & Space Style Inventory™ and identify your time management and space organizing personality styles Go here to take the quiz today!
