Debunking Time Management Myths: Separating Fact from Fiction for Better Productivity

“Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, year, day. There is a clock on your wall, on the dash of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet, all around you, time keeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check his watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”

- Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

I love that excerpt. It speaks mountains about our relationship with time - the one thing we truly can’t control.  You can’t save time, spend time or even <gasp> manage time. Time simply is.

So, if you can’t manage time, why do we sit here and think that I would have better time management if I just had:

• the right system
• the right tool
• the right process
• the right __________________ (you fill in the blank)

Then I will have it all together!

Think about how much time and money people spend on time management.  Off the top of my head, I think of Franklin Covey, the Eisenhower Matrix, and even the Pomodoro technique. These are all helpful strategies, but do you put them to use effectively to see the results?  (For more ways to determine what time management may cost you, check out this week’s article: How to Figure Out if Your Time Management is Costing You Money.)

Let me help you out and tell you that if you are thinking that if you had the next best management tool, you would have better time management is more fiction than fact. 

Here are the facts… 

Time management is:

Self-management. It’s about clarity of vision, dedication to focus, and detaching a personal value from ‘doing things’. It is about managing our attention, energy, focus, and results. 

Avoiding Distractions. Everything is demanding your attention right now, your phone, social media, your email, your family, the dishes in the kitchen, and maybe even your furbaby giving you those big eyes.  Where can you remove distractions?

Considering your Emotions. How you feel each day impacts whether the day works for you or not.  What are you doing to be at your best and get into the zone? 

Taking the time to put intention into your actions provides focus and clarity.  Are you focusing on the tasks and projects that move you forward, or are you focusing on staying busy? Doing things where other people think you are working hard but you are not really making strides?

Taking Recovery Days. Working constantly 7 days/week can make it so you do not focus and get low energy, feel scattered, and just do not work as well. You do not have to feel guilty for taking time off. You need it to be fresh and ready to work. 

Recognize that what is easy gets done. So, how can you make the important things easy? Can you break them down so that each part of it is easy? Can you schedule uninterrupted time to break down the harder things? 

What’s the payoff? My team works hard and accomplishes a lot in a short amount of time. There is a lot of satisfaction from what we achieve in a day. We don’t feel guilty because we took time off to recover. We take time off to keep putting our best foot forward. 

What do you need to do to manage your time? How can we help? Do you need more systems and strategies in place? Do you need to have a plan? If you need help with any of that, send me a DM and let’s chat!