Let’s talk time management!
What, time management is a MYTH?
How would you rate your time management abilities? On a scale of 1-10!
Just as an FYI, I rate my time management ability at 0. Should I explain myself? OK…
Imagine you have a 15-minute window coming up and you could do anything you want with your 15 minutes.
What would you do?
Can you visualise it? Good!
Now just think again what it is.
Is it you sitting down with a clock and managing each second on that clock, as it passes you by?
- Can you stop it?
- Can you slow it down?
- Can you make it go faster?
No, of course not!
So would it be more accurate to imagine how you are managing what you are doing during your 15 minutes?
Can you visualise the activity, whether that is been active (doing) or non-active (being)?
Doing:
- Finishing that blog post or report that’s been sitting in your peripheral view or drafts folder for weeks now?
- Going to the DIY store to finally buy the paint to finish the hallway?
- Finishing that last chapter of your recent read, just to GET IT finished?
Being:
- Meditating, because you’ve been promised yourself for ages?
- Sitting in the garden simply listening?
- Mindfully brainstorming an idea that’s been hanging around for a while?
Any of these activities mean you are controlling your actions. You are not controlling the clock, but what you are actually doing as the clock ticks on.
There is no rewind, there is no pause. You can pause your activity, but that will not bring you back to the future 😉
In short:
You have no control over time. Therefore, you cannot manage time.
You can only manage how you spend the time that is available to you. That’s what you have control over, and that is what you can make decisions on.
Let’s do some time management maths:
Look at an “average” week of your life:
1 Week = 168 hours
Work = 56 hours
Sleep = 56 hours
Commute = 14 hours
Personal = 14 hours
Total = 140 hours
That’s 28 Hours left!!
Yes – 28 hours every week!
That’s four hours EVERY day for you to do the things you want to do.
It’s your choice. If even half of this time is taken up with childcare, or caring for another, that still leaves you with two hours a day, to do other things.
Even if three extra hours a day are required for necessary things, that still leaves you with your 24th hour to do the things you want to do.
By the way
- Listening to your friend’s or client’s woes on the telephone for an hour is a choice!
- Spending extra time ironing socks because you feel you should is a choice!
- Taking on a job that adds an hour to your commute is a choice!
- Taking on a client with a high learning curve is a choice!
You see the pattern here? We are CHOOSING how we use the time that is available to us. Then we have the audacity to think we own that time. Call it our own, as you will.
Then we wonder where it all went! Like, what or who stole that time from us, like we actually had possession of it.
We blame some external factor or event that steals our time. Then we send them to the time prison!
And then we move along to the following week and allow that time to just slip away like last week.
Well, I have news for you!
“If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten!”
(I’ll attribute this to Marc Ostrofsky)
So if we cannot manage time, how can we better manage ourselves?
- Learn to Prioritise
- Learn to say NO!
- Leave some white space
- Accept time for what it is
- Be your own Leader
Images:
Pocket watches by Alex Guillaume on Unsplash,
Clock photo by stefan moertl on Unsplash,
Pie chart created by Elaine Rogers