Struggling to keep every ball in the air?

Right now within the Freelancing School community, we're running a monthly challenge around reclaiming your time.

Time management has always been something I consider to be one of my greatest strengths. But, as my business has grown, I've felt pulled in more directions than ever before.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with Kwame Christian on my podcast, Creative Elements. And he gave me a perspective I really needed to hear. He said:

"The visual that I keep in mind is that it's a juggling act, everybody's juggling. And so as you're juggling, you put more balls in the air, right, as you take on more responsibility to put more balls in the air..."

"The thing that people don't recognize is that some balls are rubber, some are glass."

I love this frame.

You can get really good at juggling 10 balls at a time – but they're not all created equal. Not only are some rubber and some glass, but some are valuable and some aren't.

Sometimes we find ourselves juggling tasks that we don't even want to do. Worse, sometimes we find ourselves juggling tasks that we shouldn't be doing.

At the end of the day, we choose what we juggle. And we will often choose to juggle something that we later realize was a mistake.

And when you realize that mistake, ask yourself: is this one rubber, or is this glass?

There's nothing more valuable and scarce than your own time. And that time is much better invested into your most important priorities. You're going to drop a ball from time to time anyway...sometimes it's best to simplify your juggle.

Want to go deeper?

→ Listen to the full interview with Kwame Christian

→ Join our September Reclaim Your Time Challenge

Conversation Starter of the Week

In the comments below, let me know:

→ What do you wish you could spend MORE time doing?

→ What do you wish you could spend LESS time doing?

This week on Creative Elements

Eric Jorgenson is the author of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (also called Navalmanack).

The Almanack is a collection of insight from Naval Ravikant that Eric curated from from Twitter, Podcasts, and Essays over the past decade.

In this episode we talk about Eric’s process of creating the book, how he created his own constraints, how he managed to make progress while doing this as a side project, and why he believes Curation opens the door for more books like this.

Click here to listen

Jay Clouse is the creator of Freelancing School, which provides the training and community to help people make a living freelancing. He is also the founder of Unreal Collective, a community for founders, freelancers, and creators that runs a 12-week accelerator program.

Jay hosts Creative Elements, which interviews high-profile creators who have made their own independent living.

You can connect with Jay on Twitter @jayclouse or sign up for his Sunday newsletter for creatives at jayclouse.com.

And if you REALLY want to say 'thank you,' you can buy me a coffee.