You Don’t Suck At Time Management. Time Management Sucks.

How do you feel when you think of or hear the words “time management”? If you are like me you probably feel overwhelmed, shame, cramped, etc.

Time Management Does Not Exist

I bet you thought this article was going to tell you how to manage your time. Wrong. Wanna know why? Time management does NOT exist. *mind blown* Yup, that’s right. If time management really worked – most people wouldn’t still be struggling with it, amirite? What does work?  When you focus on your values and priorities, time is no longer an issue.

Think about it…what makes time so valuable?  The value isn’t just because time is limited. If we had nothing to live for, we would be counting down the days until our time was up.  Only you can determine what makes time so valuable to you.

How to figure out your own values and priorities.

Sit down and set a time for 3 minutes.  Write down all the things you care about and what matters most to you in life. Don’t get me wrong. Values and priorities aren’t all unicorns farting rainbows.  Sometimes you value your family and because of that, you go to a job you tolerate so you can support the people you love. Sometimes you value your freedom and that inspires you to start a blogging venture.  But your venture needs to become profitable before you can quit your day job – because you know…bills and food are kinda important. So you have to stay up late or get up early in order to carve in extra hours and get stuff done temporarily. There are sacrifices involved sometimes.  The cool thing is, when you know what matters most to you and know what you want – it makes it 1000x easier to make those trades in time. In fact, sometimes it even makes the extra work enjoyable.

Say no the meh so you can say yes to the awesome.

Being super clear on your values and priorities makes it so much easier to say no to all the meh, okay, or even good things that are overfilling your plate and not fulfilling your plate. In turn, it makes it easier to have room in your schedule and say yes to awesome opportunities that are in line with your values and what you want to achieve.

Prevent an anti-climatic feeling when reaching your goal.

You know when you are working towards a goal and it feels like you are pushing a boulder up a mountain and the damn thing keeps rolling backwards?  And then when you finally get that boulder to the top of the mountain you think “Wow, who the f@!% cares? This doesn’t feel like I thought it would. Why did I spend countless hours working towards this and stress over this crap? Whyyyyyyyyy!” Yeah, been there my friend. Often times we go after a goal without really considering why we are doing it.  Maybe it is only to please someone else. Maybe it’s because others are doing it so you think you need to do it too in order to be successful. When your values and priorities are unmistakable to you and have meaning, achieving those goals feels so much better. It also makes achieving those goals a bit easier, because you usually don’t constantly feel like you are struggling.  And when an obstacle does come up, solutions present themselves quicker.

Values and priorities change as you grow.

As you grow, your values and priorities shift, and that is okay.  It is way normal. But sometimes you might feel obligated to your previous values and priorities and have a tough time letting them go.  This leads to white-knuckling your goals and usually ends up in that anti-climatic feeling if you end up achieving that goal. Recognize when a shift occurs, then re-clarify what your new values and priorities are.

You don’t suck at time management, time management sucks. Get crazy clear on what your values and priorities are and things usually fall into place after that. Because now you’re only focused on what really matters to you and all that other non-important stuff falls to the wayside.

What are your values and priorities?  I love knowing what matters most to you!

Did you find this useful?  Don’t keep it a secret.  I would love it if you would share it with a friend, colleague or loved one.  It is the biggest compliment you can give me.