55: The Myth of Time Management

Show Notes

You read the books, you try the apps, and still, you feel like you’re losing the race against the clock. If you’re a busy professional or parent, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the constant demands on your time. In this episode, we’ll dive into the first part of a new series and expose the myth of time management, revealing a more powerful solution to reclaim your day, make meaningful progress, and live with intentionality.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why trying to manage the clock often fails and what the real problem is.

• How to shift your mindset from managing your time to managing your attention and your intentionality.

• The concept of the “time trap” and how small distractions can steal your most valuable resource.

• How to reclaim a portion of your time by taking one simple action for the next 24 hours.

Resources Mentioned:

• This is the first episode of a short series. Stay tuned for the next episode where we will dive into using your values as your compass to guide your life.

Your Next Step:

For the next 24 hours, simply notice where you are giving away your time and attention to things that don’t align with your purpose. Identify at least one “time trap” that you can work on avoiding in the coming days.

Episode Transcript

Hello, my friend, and welcome. Welcome to episode 55 of the Claim your Day podcast. I’m glad you’re here and joining in. Look, if you’re anything like me, then you’re really busy trying to do all the things that you need to do, but at the same time, you want to make progress toward what’s most important for you. Your life, your family, your. Your goals, your values, and really making meaningful progress.

Well, we’re going to dive into a simple short series that’s all about kind of time, you know, and how we spend our time so that we can be effective, so we can be intentional and make that meaningful progress. So if you’re, like, I say again, if you’re anything like me, then you’ve read some books, you want to grow, you want to improve. You, maybe even you’ve tried different apps so that you can be effective.

But do you. Do you ever have that feeling like there’s just not enough time? Do you ever have that feeling that you’re not making that meaningful progress that you want? Well, if you have demands at work and family and life, which is all the different things that are vying for your attention and your time, and despite all your efforts, you know, trying to manage that clock, if it ever feels like you’re.

You’re losing that race, like you’re just not able to keep up, then this is definitely for you, the series, and especially this episode. Because today, today we’re going to dive into this myth of time management, time management and, and how it just doesn’t work sometimes, you know, and at the same time, there is a solution. There’s a solution to some of the overwhelm, and we’re going to get into it a little bit.

You know, I’ve heard somebody quit before that you can’t manage time. See, it’s going to keep going. And, and I get that. At the same time, you know, I do try to manage the time, but instead of managing the time or instead of controlling the clock, what if. What if instead we control. We. We. We chose to manage our choices and to spend our choice as well. Well, that is all about being intentional.

That is dead in line with what this purpose of this podcast is here to help you to do. So today we’re going to dive into, you know, being intentional and, and how we can focus on that instead of trying to just manage the time and ultimately get some of our time back. So there’s this time trap. There’s a time trap out there where it seems like it’s just our time is gobbled up by all these things.

So now if you’re, again, if you’re busy but you’re not making that meaningful progress and you’re trying to manage that time in order to make that progress, then here’s a reason why you might be failing or you might be missing the mark or for where you really want to be. And that, and it does come down to trying to manage the time that is passing instead of focusing on being intentional.

So we try to manage the time, we try to schedule this, this and get it all down to the 15 minute increments and blocks. Then what we’re really doing is we’re really addressing the symptom, the lack of time and not really the root cause of the maybe lack of direction. Instead of looking at a lack of time, look at it as though not being intentional with that time.

Because you’ll hear if you follow people that I talk about success and they’ve had a lot of success in their life. These people that have achieved a high level in a certain area, what they’ve done, a common thing that you hear from them is that they’ve learned to say no. They’re saying no to a lot of things because what they’re doing is they’re being intentional with their time.

They have that direction by knowing exactly where they want to go. So that time trap of trying to manage that time again, it’s more of treating the symptom of having that lack of time and not the root cause, which is not being intentional with our choices and the time that we have. So once again, the real problem isn’t going to be time. See, everybody has that same 24 hours in a day.

Instead, the real issue might be where we’re placing our attention. The real issue of being, are we being intentional and purposeful with what we do? So you can’t add more hours to the day? Believe me, I wish I could. But at the same time, same time, okay, I didn’t mean to have a pun there, but you can’t add more hours in the day. But what you can do, what you can do is you can become more intentional with how you spend your time.

You can become more intentional with how you spend your choices. Now, yes, it does sound like a grand idea to just have more hours. But that would be the same thing of somebody that was broke before they won the lottery and then they win the lottery and then two years later they’re broke again. See, they didn’t address the issue of how they’re spending their money. Well, the Same thing is with time, that if you don’t have enough time now, just adding more time isn’t going to fix the issue until you decide that you’re going to address how you’re spending your time.

Well, how you’re spending your time is determined by how intentional you’re being with your choices. Now, in today’s modern world and just life, there’s a million demands. I get that. I get that. But if we can. If we can just step out and train ourselves instead of being reactive and just reacting to all the different demands coming our way instead of that, what if we were purposeful with our choices?

What if we became intentional with what we said yes to and what we said no to so that those choices were actually in line with what we want most in our lives? Well, then ultimately we would have enough time because we would be saying no to the things that are not aligned with our values. That’s where addressing this root cause really begins to grow. I mean, think about it.

Think about it. If you don’t have enough time, but every time your phone dings, you stop what you’re doing and you look at it and you check that notification, well, then no amount of time management would really help you, because all it takes is for some notification to go off. And then no matter what you’re doing, you’re shifting your focus and you’re losing that precious time for what you’ve already blocked off.

That’s not going to help you to live the life that you want. In fact, that’s just going to lead you down that path of. Of busyness, of scrambling to keep up, of just unfulfillment, because you’re not making progress in what’s most important to you. It’s going to take that intentionality. It’s going to take saying no to the things that aren’t in line with what you need to be doing in that moment.

So we talked a little bit about the time trap, and it’s not really necessarily a lack of time. We talked about how it might be just being more intentional with how we’re spending our time. So that’s aligned with our values and what’s most important. And all this, See, all this is really going to require a shift in mindset. It’s going to be a shift in mindset. And with this series and with really a lot of this whole podcast, it’s about living with your purpose, the purpose that you have for your life.

And instead of we’re going to move beyond just trying to manage that clock and Manage that time instead. Manage your intention. I know you hear that word a lot here, being intentional. Because if you’re not taking actions toward what’s most important to you, then you’re never going to make progress in that area. I want you to think just for a little bit, and we’ll get into a little action step that you can do for the next day to really live this out in just a moment.

But I want you to think just for a minute about what it would look like if you consciously chose and you were deliberate in where you invested in your time, your energy and your focus. What if you laid out how you were going to spend your time and your energy and where you would focus? Think about that for. And all the distractions went away. Think how amazing that would be.

You wouldn’t need time management because you would be focused on what’s most important to you, your life and your family, rather than letting yourself, your life be dictated by. By the schedule and demands of everybody else. What if you intentionally chose where you put your time and your energy and your focus? Now doesn’t. That doesn’t sound easy at all, does it? That’s probably going to take a whole lot of work.

But as John Maxwell says, everything worthwhile is uphill all the way. And being intentional with our choices, my friend, that is definitely worthwhile. It is tough, it is challenging. It’s going to be work, but it is definitely worth worthwhile. Now here. Here’s where I want you to begin to take one of your first steps to reclaiming your day and to forget about that time management just for a little bit.

And instead find out what these time wasters are. See if you can remove some of the things that are. Wait. That are stealing your time. You’re going to gain that time back. This is how you can reclaim your time and reclaim your day. So for the next 24 hours, this is not a huge commitment. Not a huge commitment. You definitely can do it. But for the next 24 hours, I want you just to make a mental note that you’re going to notice.

Just notice. You’re going to notice where you’re giving away your time and attention. Where are you giving away your time and attention? These are things that don’t align with your purpose. These are things that don’t bring value to your life in the areas that are most important to you. They might even be things that don’t align with your values. They might be. They might be things that are stealing your attention away from what you’ve already decided is most Important to you and your life.

In the next 24 hours, I want you to identify at least one time trap, just one time trap. It’s like anything in life. We want to make these positive changes. We want to make a massive difference in our life. We’ve got to start with these small steps. Small steps over time will take you farther than large leaps. So in the next 24 hours, you’re going to take that small step to reclaiming your day, to taking your time back.

And that is going to be while you go. These next 24 hours, you’re going to take notice of at least one thing, at least one time trap that is stealing your attention. At least one time trap where you’re just sacrificing your time, you’re giving your time away to something that does not align with your purpose and your values and what you want most in your life. It could be anything.

But for the next 24 hours, do this, write it down, and then. Then here’s the kicker. Once you know that time trap, I want you to avoid it the next day. That’s all it is. Just one small, tiny thing at a time, and you’re gonna get that time back in your life. See, the clock is a tool. It is, but. But it’s not a compass. A clock just measures that time.

But the compass is going to determine. Is going to help you to guide your life to go where you want to go. It’s going to help you to determine how you’re spending that time. And your values. Your tr. Your values are your true north. Your values are that compass. You have your values and use those values to guide your life. And we’re going to dive into that a whole lot more in the next episode.

But for this one, identify that one time trap in the next 24 hours and work on eliminating just that one time trap. And then the next episode, we’re going to talk about using your values as your compass so that you can truly guide your life and use your time for what’s most important to you. Your life and your family and with and your goals. So you live that life that you want to live.

All right. Thank you for listening to the Claim youm Day podcast. I am glad that you’re here, that you’re listening, you’re taking action, and you’re moving toward the life that’s most important to you, that resonates with your value values so that you can live your values and lead your life, my friend, that it brings joy to my heart. You making progress in those areas that are most important to you because we need more people in this world.

Being intentional, that’s what we need, and you’re contributing to it. And so thank you for that. Can’t wait to talk to you again in the next episode. Take care.