An important element in a time creation approach is an ability to respond to changing situations and events. We have already seen something of this. Here we shall examine the contribution to be made by critical incidents and learning periods. They give an additional dimension of flexibility and we need to be ready to exploit them.

An example of a critical incident might take the form of meeting, hearing or reading about an influential charismatic person. Or it may be a sudden revelation or insight, a shock, or a change of personal circumstances. Learning periods often occur as certain times of day are found to be better for learning and working than others.

Characteristically, skilled users of critical incidents and learning periods:

• Try to do their most important work at the times of day they know from experience are best for them.
• They exploit their failures as well as their successes, recognising that one can often learn as much, if not more, from failure as from success.
• They do what they can to turn circumstances to their advantage. For example, they will use a period in which they may temporarily be confined to the house by a minor ailment in order to catch up on some reading, or even to do a little writing that the presence of daily work has prevented them from tackling.

Critical incidents and learning periods compel you to re-examine and re-appraise what you have been doing.

• They make you propose changes and then try these changes out.
• Because they work in this way, they prevent you from getting into a rut and making stereotyped and repetitive responses to events.
• They make you self-critical, in the sense of being more aware of both your merits and your deficiencies.
• They stimulate your sense of curiosity and your enthusiasm.
• They thus have a generally beneficial and regenerative effect upon the way you look upon the world and upon your approach to the challenges it presents.

Everyone can benefit from the identification and use of critical incidents and learning periods, but they are of most value to those who feel they are in a rut. Those who have recently undergone a traumatic experience of some kind can best exploit them. They should prove particularly attractive to those who have unfulfilled ambitions and are willing to learn. They can be expected to occur when least expected. As already indicated, they should especially be looked for at your best times for working, after shocks or significant life events, after totally new experiences, and when you are in strange places that you have never previously visited.

These incidents and periods occur for many reasons. Progress in any activity and in life itself is rarely smooth and constant. It goes in spurts, followed by plateaux, and it is when you find yourself on one of these plateaux that you are more likely than usual to be ready to exploit a critical incident or a learning period.

You don’t have to wait for them to occur, however.

• You can take steps to create the conditions in which they are most likely to occur.
• You can organise your activities in such a way that they recognise the ‘progress – plateau – progress’ approach.
• You can be alert during plateau periods for the next door to open.
• You can use plateaux for reading, research, preparation, and so on, even if there is no specific objective to latch onto.

As with other time creation techniques, you can use a number of exercises to help to stimulate your ability to develop your use of critical incidents and learning periods. Try some or all of the following exercises:

• 1.Select a task. Any one will do, but it should preferably be one which you usually experience some difficulty in completing. It may be studying, writing a report for work purposes, planning how to decorate a room or repair something in the house that has broken down, or it may be any other difficult task. Attempt the task at different times of day. Does any particular time of day emerge as the best time to tackle the task? If one does, you have almost certainly identified what is for you a learning period.
• 2.Record all the critical incidents and learning periods that you can recall having happened to you in the past. Is there any pattern in when, where, how and why they occurred? Did you make the best use of them? This exercise should help you to identify them when they occur again and perhaps make better use of them in future.
• 3.The next time you are blocked in an activity (that is to say, you have reached a point at which you feel you cannot make any further progress), leave it for a day or so, do something else meantime and then come back to it. Does that make it easier for you to progress? If it does, you may have gone through an incubation period, but you may also have hit upon a learning period, especially if you select a time of day when you know from experience you can work better.
• 4.Set aside some time each week for reading you would not otherwise do. This encourages a learning orientation and a general receptiveness to new information and ideas. It makes for a developing open-mindedness that will enable you to exploit future critical incidents and learning periods to the full.
• 5.Go to a public meeting to listen to someone you know or have heard is a good speaker. Afterwards, is there any urge on your part to ‘do something’ about the subject of the speech? If there is, you have almost certainly experienced a critical incident.
• 6.Make sure that you meet and talk at some length to at least one new person each week. Doing this will have a similar effect to general reading. It makes you more receptive to new information, experience and ideas.
• 7.Change your sleeping habits for a week. If you usually go to bed late and rise late, try going to bed early and rising early. If you usually go to bed early, try going to bed late and rising late. Keep as detailed a record as you can of the effects upon your working habits and patterns. It is just possible that you may be able to identify a better way of organising your life. It is surprising how many people find working very late at night or very early in the morning effective. But not both in the same week, of course, as everyone needs a reasonable amount of sleep.
• 8.Try reading some inspirational works. You can choose religious or philosophical books as you prefer. Some possible writers are Marcus Aurelius, La Rochefoucauld and Mao Tse-tung, but you may prefer the Bible, the Koran or the writings of the Buddha, especially if you have not read them before. You may well find that one or other of these provides you with the possibility of experiencing a critical incident.

These exercises will help to promote your ability to develop this particular aspect of time creation, but you will need at all times to keep your mind open to the possibility of critical incidents and learning periods occurring. They can do a lot to make life easier, as well as more productive. And laidback bears like to achieve both of these.