What is your relationship with Time?

I am a productivity geek who loves learning how to juggle multiple things and to do them better and faster each time. I explore the latest books, apps and resources on optimizing my time in such a way that I could go to bed each night having ticked every item in my ‘To-do’ list. Be it on task batching, time boxing or digital minimalism, I read and research this topic regularly and implement atomic habits and success strategies that are geared for focus.

Overall, I guess I’ve been fairly proud of how much I get done in a typical day juggling work, home, learning and raising 3 children. People close to me would look at my life and remark on my sense of focus and discipline, which in turn would just further reinforce those behaviours! And at the end of the day, I used to feel something - which because I couldn’t name accurately - I’d pass off as a vague sense of ‘happiness’ at a day well spent.

Lately though, I’m beginning to realize that my relationship with Time is skewed and sometimes even unhealthy. I often feel as though Time is running me, rather than me running my day. The constant rush from one task to another, even during leisure activities like reading or playing the piano, gave me the feeling of being too structured and boxed in. And I realized that what I felt at the end of the day was not really happiness – it was merely the absence of guilt.

This got me rethinking what we traditionally call as time management and productivity.

Oliver Burkeman in his book ‘Four Thousand Weeks’ speaks about the big change in the way humans think about Time. Before the industrial revolution, our concept of Time was more organic and in tune with nature. There was no concept of getting work done in advance – one couldn’t reap the harvest or milk the cows earlier just to save ourselves time later in the day! We had to go with the flow of nature, which necessarily meant rest and leisure interspersed within the work day. Today we are constantly trying to set ourselves up for an easier tomorrow [the ‘finish it off now’ mindset or the ‘I’ll rest when it is done’ mindset], little realizing the myth of ‘completed work’ or an ‘easier tomorrow’.

In my recent research, I've discovered three interesting insights that have been helpful for me:

1.????? Procrastination can be helpful!

The truth is that everyone procrastinates...the top performer, your disciplined boss, the motivational speaker you see on YouTube. And the reason for this is the way we are wired. We cannot possibly function at our highest levels of productivity all the time without risking burnout. Ironically, recent research also suggests that consciously choosing to procrastinate leads to better productivity, improved decision making, more creativity and lesser stress!

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The trick here of course is learning to mindfully balance productivity with procrastination, and to consciously ask ourselves about priorities “What’s most important that has to be done first?” and then asking “Which of these can wait till tomorrow?”

Rory Vaden calls this ‘Procrastinating on purpose’ and he strongly believes it’s one of the most effective ways to create and even multiply one’s time!

2.????? Embrace the power of Subtraction

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Leidy Klotz in his book ‘Subtract’ writes about our inherent bias for addition and how we consistently overlook subtraction as a problem solving or decision-making tool. Klotz while playing with his son Ezra and his Lego set, observed his own natural tendency to add a Lego block to improve a design, as compared to his son’s tendency to remove a block instead.

[Just for fun, try Klotz’s puzzle below on Overlooking Subtraction and see your instinctual first response – was it to add or remove? ;)]

We have often heard the idea that less is more and by removing additional clutter we can achieve greater success and fulfilment. A very similar concept is discussed by Greg McKeown in ‘Essentialism’, where he encourages readers to let go of the non-essential to create space and energy for what truly matters. Given that our time, energy and bandwidth are limited, what we choose NOT to do is more influential that what we do.

?So, think about maintaining a ‘Not to do’ list for all work areas you choose not to take up. With a ‘subtraction’ mindset, you might choose to delegate that report, to rid the app of unnecessary features or to offer lesser colour varients for the product, thereby simplifying the supply chain issues.

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3.????? The Value of Leisure is seriously underestimated

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The decline of leisure that started with the industrial revolution provoked a huge build-up in frustration and anxiety that each generation since seems to be passing on to the future ones. We are more affluent today than ever before, but facing unprecedented stress and time poverty! Not allowing for unstructured time in our lives and wanting to manage every workday like clockwork seems an unrealistic and unsustainable approach to life.

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Leisure is linked so closely to all that makes up a fulfilling life – joy, creativity, self-expression, social connections and well-being – that it seems a tragedy to relegate this to the lowest priority. The number of people who admit to me (albeit guiltily) to taking a siesta on a Monday afternoon or watching a comedy series in between board meetings should be more the norm rather than the exception. When we find spare time, I wish more of us would spend it doing the things we love or at least things that energize us for the important work ahead.

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Working with our energy and not against it, and embracing small breaks during the work day is the key to higher performance and productivity. The research on the Ultradian performance rhythm stresses the power of working in tune with the body’s peak and trough energy cycles.

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I’m realizing that productivity is not about being a workhorse or a hamster on a treadmill. It’s not about organizing every minute of our time, optimizing every 10 minute free slot to send out a quick email or to make that call, walking simultaneously to clock steps on our smartwatches. At a deeper level, it’s about embracing our mortality and knowing that our time on Earth is limited – give or take 4000 weeks if we’re lucky.

And knowing this, I don’t want to spend the rest of my time here trying to avoid regret or minimize guilt about how I’m making - or failing to make - each day count. Instead I want to fiercely protect my time and my energy, and focus only on those things that truly bring me meaning and joy.

And then, at the end of the day when my head hits the pillow, I’d like my last thought to be “This I know is happiness”