"Forget time management—manage your attention"
Being aware of and identifying "the time sinks" pays off.
“Forget time management—manage your attention”—says the headline of one of Forbes' articles.1
This rings the truth.
Between the time and attention, later would tip the scales.
Yet, being aware of and identifying “the time sinks” pays off.
Perhaps you took time last week to complete the Time management quiz2 I’ve included in the post: Time Smart: “How to reclaim your time and live a happier life.”
That short quiz was aimed to help you determine where you squander your time away, where you do ok, and where you might need to improve. Don’t worry if you have not completed it; I’m not keeping a tally! You’re good.
In this week’s post, we will spend 10 minutes reflecting on your current situation and identifying your biggest challenges with time management. —it sounds complex, I know!
But I will make it super easy and cut to the most relevant and straightforward tips on assessing schedules, as always, based on personal experience and research.
Reflect on your typical day with these questions.
Let's start by taking a moment to reflect on your typical day. Think about how you spend your time at work and home.
Ask yourself, what are the things that you do regularly that take up a lot of your time? Are there any specific tasks that you find difficult to complete or put off until the last minute? Then, ask yourself, How can I effectively manage my time and prioritise tasks to avoid procrastination and ensure important tasks are completed on time?
I’ve included some additional questions to help your thinking juices flow. You can find them in this Google Form Workbook3. If you wish, share it with me and let me know what your schedule looks like now. Feel free to use the comments section below.
Most people avoid assessing their own schedules simply because they believe it’s time-consuming. I don’t believe that, and neither should you.
It can be done in 10 minutes or less. I will show you how in next week's post.
For now, let’s focus on the topic at hand — assessing your schedule.
Is there such a thing as an ideal schedule?
The answer depends heavily on your personal experience with your schedule and, more importantly, how well or poorly you organise and stick to it.
→ You might say yes if your schedule directly reflects timeblocks for your most important work.
Are you making progress on those projects that mean so much to you? If you answered yes, you’d give me a double yes with pride and contentment.
→ If your schedule brings you a sense of peace—knowing that there’s a lot to do and not enough time, yet you have a clear plan of action—having a schedule in place makes you feel content enough in spite of the excessive amount of work.
→ If your answer is no, then there are some major adjustments to be made. This brings us back to today’s post and key points from the research I conducted on assessing schedules and what it means to create the most effective schedule for yourself.
Let’s get to it. I think you’ll enjoy it even if you have a good grasp of your schedule.
Does your schedule reflect your values?
This one is relatively easy, and you already have the answer.
Your answer to this question I asked you earlier will determine whether your schedule reflects your values: Is there such a thing as an ideal schedule?
But why is it important? Why should the schedule reflect your values, and most importantly, how can you ensure it does?
By all means, the benefit of the value-driven schedule is that it helps you determine what’s most important to you. You craft your calendar around those priorities rather than crossing your arms and hoping there will be time for your priorities around whatever else might land on your schedule.
Elizabeth Grace Saunders4, a regular contributor to HBR, offers a three-step process to create a values-driven schedule based on strategies she’s found effective whilst working with her clients.
Step 1: Get clear on what’s most important
Categories: Start by listing the categories you want to include and make space for them in your calendar, such as writing articles, family, rest and time out, exercise, etc.
Convert action into time: Next, consider how much time you would be happy to invest in these activities. Would you be happy to spend 40 minutes running two times a week?
The aim is to set tiny goals for each category and then convert them into the time required for you to accomplish them.
Establish “essential rituals”: The last step could be a good time to lay the groundwork for some “essential rituals” you want to start, such as reading in bed for 30 minutes before bedtime. (Sidenote—that’s my one!)
At this step, you think of the habit you’d like to adopt and finally introduce it into your daily routine.
Step 2: Define why they’re important
This step is exactly what it sounds like—get clear on your why for each of the selected activities.
Review the categories you chose and think of why each one of these is important to you.
Sanders suggests, “As you evaluate the “why,” look at everything from a 50-year point of view. Think about what you wrote down and ask yourself, “Fifty years from now, what choices would I have been happy that I made? What would matter to me? What wouldn’t?”5
Step 3: Fuse your priorities with your schedule
So now you’re clear on your priorities, and you know the why behind them. The last piece of the puzzle is to add these to your schedule before all else starts pouring in.
One thing we know for sure (because all the productivity experts say so) is that you have to schedule the most important activities first before anything else can take up the blank space.
“But if most of us take an honest look at our schedules, what we spend our time on doesn’t reflect the things that we say matter to us” — Kate Northrup writes in “Do less: a revolutionary approach to time and energy management.”6
This brings us to the end. The next step is to do the work and assess your schedule7. How do you spend your day, and what do you invest your time into? Does it still work for you?
You could also take this approach, complete this reflection form, then answer the following:
What do you need to do more of? Less of?
What do you need to start doing? Stop doing?
Thank you for reading, have a great week,
Until next Wednesday,
Jana
This is the fifth post out of 24 essays I plan to write as part of the Sparkle on Substack Essay Club to keep myself accountable and post regularly.
If life often gets in the way of your regular writing and you are a fellow Substacker (which many of you are), I'd recommend you join Claire Venus and Sparkle on Substack Essay Club.
Northrup, Kate. Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time and Energy Management for Ambitious Women (p. 67). Hay House. Kindle Edition.
I love this. I am so fascinated by "time management" and how we value/prioritize how we "spend" the currency that is made of moments, in service of those we love and that which we want to bring into the world...
I have always used a similar mindset for when something is upsetting or frustrating, will I remember this or be affected by it in a few months or years. So why get hung up on it if the answer is no.
I always used it to deal with negatives, it also sounds like a good idea to be using this for the positives and figuring out what is important