There's always more time

Today at 5:00pm, I stopped working and went for a run. After I got back, I prepped dinner, put it in the oven and took a nice shower. I ate dinner with my girlfriend and then did a 10 minute yoga stretch. No, my day today wasn’t light or my day off. My inbox is as big as ever on Mondays and my to-do list is over 10 tasks long.

This may seem like a pipe dream to many who work demanding jobs and I get it… I used to feel that this wasn’t possible back in the day.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about time management, it’s that there’s always more time. This may seem counter intuitive because the point of time management is to prioritize tasks and appointments in your limited time every day.

You can’t create more time, but there’s always more time in the day. Say what?

Think about your busiest day of the last week. I’d assume it was filled with back to back meetings while your inbox and to-do list piled up. Everything feels urgent and if you don’t get your tasks done now, then your clients will leave you and you’ll be fired.

Now think about your time spent that day and think about how many of those things you did were truly urgent and would’ve resulted in something utterly awful happening to you or your job. Maybe 1 or 2 things. Likely none.

Not everything is urgent. You can let it sit for awhile and likely no one is going to die. (Except if you’re a ER doctor, you should probably get back to work)

If you come to terms with this fact, you’ll find more time in your day. You don’t always have to take that call right now. You don’t have to clear your inbox just this minute. The proposal likely can wait another day.

In fact, if you apply the 80/20 rule to your calendar, you’ll probably find that you’re better off shelving 80% of your schedule and planned tasks for those 20% high value add items.

As for leisure activities. That’s part of your day too. Exercise, family time, and breaks are all part of your time. Plan for it as if it’s another work task. There’s always more time in the day for these things if you look hard enough.