How often do you wish you had more time in a day?

Do you tell yourself you could be so much better at your job, your relationships, or even your health with better time management?

Good. This is for you; a new perspective on achieving success with less effort than everyone else.

Let’s begin by ignoring the delusion of waking up earlier, going to bed later, and working harder. It’s a downward spiral to burning out. It may seem productive at first, but the end result is even less productivity and quality than where you began.

Time as we know it does not exist

Time is only a number. It holds absolutely no significance beyond the mathematical means to define the the length of our day. Did you know that our days are not actually 24 hours long? Go ahead and Google it, I’ll wait.

We’ve conditioned ourselves to be prideful in the act of being busy. There is no pride in that.

Think about it this way; if time is a constant length then why does it seem to bend so carelessly? Why does staring at a clock seemingly make time stand still? Why does the anxiousness of running late eat away at time so quickly? If there were any solidarity to time, it would be reliable and never in question.

Time, unlike any other mathematical formula, is governed entirely by perception.

How can we plan for the future on such unstable ground? Isn’t that simply setting ourselves up for failure?

Most of us only budget by time because we lack a better way to plan. We dread the alarm clock that tells us when our day begins. We submit project estimates based on times that are completely fabricated. We submit timesheets for paychecks that valuate our time in an overly casual way.

When co-workers ask for help on projects, friends and family text, call or email, your time becomes their time. An ever growing Venn Diagram where their equal overlap becomes the steady majority. Eroding away any chance of productivity that is surely within your grasp.

Imagine the invigorating power of not planning your day around time, but planning around specific action.

Action Management

Do not create a to-do list for your day. Most people set themselves up for failure by planning for ideal situations.

If you can accomplish your action list in 4 hours, why would you try to fit more work into your day?

Let go of the fear that you may miss an important email, phone call or text. Once you react, their priorities become yours.

Electronic communication is only convenient for people that want something from you. Everyone else knows that you’re busy and understands your delayed response.

Repeat that paragraph. It’s important.

Now, pick three things that you will accomplish today. Don’t estimate how long each action will take. Just do them.

For consultants or business owners it may look like:

  1. follow up on pitch/meeting/phone call
  2. reach out to five new prospects
  3. finish specific task on a project

For bloggers it may look like:

  1. brainstorm five new blog post topics
  2. research and write a new blog post
  3. comment and share posts from five other bloggers

That’s it. If you think this is too easy, it is. It’s very easy. Accept it.

Time Management has failed us

We’ve conditioned ourselves to be prideful in the act of being busy. There is no pride in that. Don’t try to give 100% all day, every day because it’s impossible. Ignore the cliche motivators that do more harm than good. Just finish what you start.

If you can accomplish your action list in 4 hours, why would you try to fit more work into your day?

Once you try to do additional work, your brain will begin to compare how much you have accomplished today with previous days. Possibly even against your most productive day. If, by comparison, you accomplished less you will feel like you’ve failed.

Start setting yourself up for success instead of failure.

Working less has been proven to result in higher quality work. For that very same reason, major corporations are shifting focus to this mindset. Burying the timesheet and implementing value pricing in a results only work environment (ROWE).

Customers do not buy our time. They buy our knowledge and the value we provide them.

If you can provide the same value in five hours of time versus pretending to work for forty, shouldn’t you be able to make a similar salary?

If you get paid for an hour of work but your proposed solution to their problem only takes five minutes, should you only get paid for those five minutes?

This was part 1 of the Essential 5-part Productivity Guide series. Read Part 2: Stop Planning for Tomorrow



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