A sustainable approach to time management (that doesn’t require software)
I bet you won’t read this.
You’re probably too busy anyway.
After all, aren’t we all plagued with too much to do and not enough time? Isn’t that the price we pay to live our lives, make ends meet, and maybe take a vacation once in a while? Cramming our schedules, overbooking our calendars, and saying yes to everything has become the norm for so many. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t hear a friend, a client, or a family member say: “I’m so busy. If I wasn’t so busy, I’d have time for exercise, reading, learning a new skill, etc…” Think about it: what have you been craving but haven’t made time for?
We’ve become accustomed to the idea that busyness is synonymous with success. We live in a hustle and chase culture that has taught us that those with a full calendar are important, high status individuals. Alternatively, those with space and time in their workday are somehow less than, lazy, not living up to expectations.
So, let me ask you this:
How is that working for you?
How is booking your calendar back-to-back and continually adding to the list of the things to do working?
How is working days, nights, and weekends, supporting your productivity? Your lifestyle? Your health…?
Being burnt out, feeling depleted, and getting further away from the things that bring you joy, is the perfect path to unhappiness. Overtime, it leads you to feel less connected to your work and ends in a lack of productivity - the very thing you were trying to improve upon in the first place.
The good news is: there is another way.
And it starts with your relationship with time.
After all, where does time come from? Is it created for us or by us?
One of the most impactful time management strategies I can share, is Einstein Time from Gay Hendricks’s The Big Leap which states:
You are where time comes from.
“Once you understand that you’re where time comes from, you have the power to make as much of it as you want… By learning to occupy space in a new way, we actually gain the ability to generate more time.” Gay Hendricks
If you can open your mind to this new way of thinking about time, you will feel less restriction and more expansion in your day-to-day. You will find yourself moving out of rushing and urgency, and stepping into ease and flow.
But it doesn’t stop there.
As the creator of time, you need to be aware of what you’re creating time for.
In other words:
What do you want?
What do you want in your life, your career, your relationships that you don’t have right now?
What do you want more of? What do you want less of?
Being crystal clear in your answer to these questions will help you to find focus.
It will bring awareness to what you are spending your time on and if it’s aligned with your values. Take the time to do a time audit: notice how you are using your time and how you feel doing the activities that are taking up your time. Remember that your values are yours. Your feelings are yours. Be open to exploring what’s ideal for you in relation to your life, your world, your being - not someone else’s.
And as the work piles up and the requests continue to come in, remember that you can choose to say yes to more, or you can choose to say no. If you’re struggling with finding time to do more of the things that bring you joy, use the subtraction solution: decrease the length of your meetings, decline the lunch/dinner/coffee that doesn’t align with your current priorities, detach yourself from the expectations of others and fear of missing out. Remember:
When you say yes to something, you say no to something else.
So, what are you creating time for?
Kirsten Schmidtke is a professional coach, creator, and lover of lake life. She works with leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs to help them up-level their careers, businesses, and lives. Are you ready to explore what’s possible for you? Contact Kirsten to start the conversation!
