Metaprograms of Time

In the business area, three levels must be considered.

A. Time Orientation Sort

Which time (past, present, future) does someone prefer in their world model? There are also people who are atemporal in their thinking. Many NLP techniques have a relationship with the Metaprogram Time.

1. Past: This group includes conservatives, most therapy patients, and artists. Jung called this group "Feelers"
2. Present: Athletes and "Doers". Jung called this group "Perceivers". They use their senses to feel and experience ("Feelers").
3. Future: Philosophers, people who develop new ideas. Jung called these people "Intuitives".
4. Atemporal: These are the scientists; they live outside of time. These are the "Thinkers".

B. Time Storage Sort

"Please recall an event from your past... and now think of an outcome in the future...." "Where are the respective memories...., point your finger in the corresponding direction."

With this question, we can convey how time and memories or future visions are stored.

The majority of authors will fall into the two following categories:

1. Through Time: "From left to right" or "from top to bottom," as long as both are in front of the person.
   
   Through-Time people have the entire timeline outside their bodies. People store their time linearly, sequentially. They experience the duration of time. Their memories are usually dissociated. For these people, value and time are often equivalent.
   
   They are punctual and expect the same from others. It is often difficult for these people to "leave their past behind."
   
   Typically, these people have problems arising from the past, and these issues are constantly present. They often have difficulty deciding, or their decision-making process takes a relatively long time.
   
   Typically, these people collapse many individual experiences into a single shape. This makes it very difficult for them to remember things precisely in time. When remembering, these people often jump back and forth and are very dissociated, making it hard to anchor a memory clearly.
2. In Time: "From front to back."
   In-Time people often store their future in front of them and their past behind them. The characteristic feature is that part of their timeline, usually the present, goes through their body. They can easily go back in time to a specific event. They are fully immersed in this experience and have little perception of the duration. This can generally cause these people to have trouble finishing a session or similar, as they are fully "in" the experience.
   
   Punctuality is not the strong suit of In-Time people. These people are often independent and can make decisions quickly. Often too quickly, which leads to buyer's remorse and similar issues. For projects that span a long time, these people need someone to ensure they stay on track. They can easily go into the past and dwell there. Consequently, it is easy to anchor past experiences for these people. These people can easily be in a good mood or depressed; they don't like to be alone and spend a lot of time on the phone. When they fail to keep an agreement, they often say, "That wasn't ME." "I wasn't myself." In therapy, these are the people who have a new problem every week.

C. Time Access Sort

This metaprogram deals with how we remember past events.

1. Between-Time: These people can access their memories arbitrarily. From the present moment directly to any point in their past. They organize their memories by comparing different times. Time has no length. They can think of two different times simultaneously and see them as layers. For them, a year in the past is not a long time; they can easily go back in time while maintaining a meta-position. They can also experience two times simultaneously by quickly jumping back and forth between them. Once they are convinced of something, they stay convinced. They do not forget and do not experience time as linear.
2. Over-Time: These people remember sequentially, i.e., they start NOW and go through "all" memories backward until they reach the relevant time. Time is long. It is "difficult" to go backward in time except sequentially. They often change their minds and are forgetful. They divide their life into sequences that are OVER-TIME.