Has technology given you more free time or less? Are you feeling overwhelmed by too much multitasking, information overload and an overcrowded schedule? Do you feel guilty when you’re not doing something productive?

It seems like most of us live our lives based on the clock. We wake up at a certain time, work on a schedule and scrutinize our performance on how long it takes us to accomplish things. If we get more done in less time, we feel good about it. But when something takes longer than we anticipated, we feel disappointed with our performance.

The productivity equals happiness illusion

I think we can all agree that the clock is not the problem. The problem is that we tend to base our worth on how productive we are. We’ve been programmed to believe there is a finish line out there somewhere and once we reach it we will be done. And what does being done represent? Being done represents being happy and relaxed, right?

Being done is only an illusion because we always find more to do. In fact, we usually want more to do because a balanced amount of productivity feels good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with productivity. There is only a problem when we start basing our happiness on our rate of achievement.

The time equals money, which equals happiness trap

In a work by the hour society it is easy to see how the saying time equals money came about. At a set hourly wage, the more hours you work the more money you will make. We can also relate to the fact that a certain amount of money is required to meet our material needs with a reasonable degree of comfort.

Somehow though, the perceived value of money eclipsed the real value of time. Let’s splash a little reality on that idea right now. Time is the most valuable commodity there is. Its value cannot be measured in dollars and cents because time is the fundamental unit of life. Money is just a unit of trade that we have assigned a certain value.

When we exchange our time for money we are actually trading a portion of our life for the things that money can buy. Once we go beyond the basic creature comforts, we are trading our life for bells and whistles that have no actual intrinsic value. That is not happiness, it is slavery. This is where the real value of productivity comes in.

Realistic productivity can actually buy you time

The trick here is to see productivity as a way to compress the time required to meet our goals without using it as an excuse for endlessly doing more. More is not the answer. If we view time as the most valuable commodity, then our goal should be to do enough, not more.

This doesn’t mean filling every waking moment with some activity or appointment. It means raising our level of efficiency to the point where we have more time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  If I can earn a comfortable living in four hours a day instead of eight, then I have successfully bought myself an extra four more hours for actual living.

I think it’s important that we reject the idea of living our lives based on some arbitrary monetary value. Rather than searching for happiness in productivity or an ever increasing income, we would do well to learn to find satisfaction in the present moment.

5 ways to regain control of your time

1. Maintain a balanced view. Having goals means that there are bound to be times when we make certain sacrifices with regard to our time. But balance means that we will take steps to make sure that those sacrifices don’t define our lives. Make sure to offset those times by also allowing time for meaningful periods of full participation in the life you already have.

2. Keep your perspective. Sometimes we need to drop pursuits or activities that are no longer serving us. It is important to have the courage to pull the plug on a goal that is no longer aligned with your true self. What matters most is that you stay authentic and don’t waste big chunks of your life chasing things that don’t really matter.

3. Weigh the benefits and the cost. Are the sacrifices you’re making now a part of a larger purpose? Our long term goals should enable us to have more free time to do what we want in the future, not create more stress. If the stress outweighs the benefits, it’s likely that your goal is not a healthy one.

4. Just say no. How often do you say yes to a commitment when you really want to say no? A lot of our freedom is thrown away if we are unable to claim ownership of our time. Be humble enough to recognize that you can only do so much. There’s no point in trying to help a hundred other people if it means running your own life into the ground.

5. Follow your natural rhythms. When possible, avoid the temptation to force yourself to be productive when you need to relax. Otherwise, you will end up working against yourself. Try to pay attention to your natural rhythms. When you feel like being productive, go for it. But when you feel the need for some down time, don’t hold yourself back. Doing nothing is not a crime, sometimes it is essential.

Is increasing your productivity increasing your happiness?

If you’re getting more done, but not making more time for the things you want to do, something is wrong. The point of getting things done is not to have more time to get more things done. It’s to have more time for the things you truly enjoy.

If we can learn how to be more content with our level of productivity it will be easier to have a balanced view of time. Then our productivity will contribute to our happiness instead of stealing it from us. Cultivating a balanced and meaningful view of productivity can help you re-claim your time and increase your happiness.

Remember, time is not money. Time is life so spend it wisely.

How do you assess the value of your time?
Where does productivity fit into the picture?
The lines are open!

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Time is the most valuable commodity any of us has, so it is appropriate that we examine ways to use time management to make the most of the time available to us.

Think about it. Unlike other commodities, time is something we all get in equal measure. Every living person gets exactly 24 hours a day, no more and no less. Regardless of our economic, social or intellectual status, whether we are old, young or somewhere in between, we are allotted the same amount of hours per day and that cannot be changed.

Why am I emphasizing this point?

Of all the feedback that comes my way from clients, newsletter subscribers and blog visitors, the one question I here most often is, “how can I get more done in a day?” That’s a time management question if I ever heard one. Here are a few partial quotes, “…trying to do everything all at once,” “… getting overwhelmed by committing to too many things,” and, “there never seems to be enough time.” Do you ever feel that way?

With the ever-increasing demands being put on our time and energy, it’s no wonder that people feel overwhelmed. So, how can we deal with it?

Take a realistic approach to time management

There are a few simple strategies I can suggest that will provide a measure of relief. To keep things realistic though, we need to remember that there actually is a limit to what can be accomplished in 24 hours. Nobody gets a 25-hour day, so with that in mind, let’s acknowledge that limiting the number of things we try to pack into a day is a necessary skill we would all do well to develop.

If we habitually spread ourselves too thin, we will be unable to accomplish anything effectively. This just adds to the problem, and increases the pressure we feel to get more done. Avoid this trap by learning to set reasonable limits and focusing on the task at hand.

Now that we’ve acknowledged that we are working within certain limits beyond our control, we see the need for some effective time management skills. With that in mind, let’s examine some areas where we do have a measure of control.

5 ways to improve our use of time

1) Decide which activities will get top priority.
2) Limit distractions and clutter that rob you of energy.
3) Schedule brief but refreshing breaks.
4) Tweak your perception of time.
5) Simplify your life.

Notice that our list starts with the basics.  That’s because if we don’t get the basics right, the rest really doesn’t matter.

3 high priority items that you should never ignore

1) Sleep. Never make the mistake of sacrificing sleep to get other things done.  Your body, your mind, and your emotions all require adequate sleep in order to function properly.  If you don’t like the way you are feeling physically, mentally, or emotionally, take an honest look at your sleep patterns.  If there’s a problem or a lack, make the needed adjustments. Proper time management in this area means making the time to get sufficient sleep.

2) Nutrition.  If you’re living on coffee and fast food, adjustments are in order.  Yes, it takes more time to properly nourish your body, but the time spent is an investment that pays dividends all day long.

3) Exercise.  The human body was not created to sit in a chair all day.  Find some form of exercise that you can realistically commit to and make it a habit.  Spend at least 15 to 20 minutes a day, five days a week in some form of activity that gets your blood flowing and your mind away from work. This is one of the easiest areas to ignore and that’s why it needs to become a priority.

Adequate sleep, nutrition and exercise, play a vital role in your mental clarity, energy levels, productivity, and overall outlook on life.  Make them your first priority if you want to perform at peak levels. Remember, time management means making time for the things that matter most.

Is it important or just masquerading as urgent?

Another important distinction we need to make when setting priorities is to understand the difference between things that seem to be urgent (but aren’t), and things that are important.  Life is full of fake emergencies, and it’s quite possible to spend all your time dealing with them.

The problem with this scenario is, at the end of the day you don’t feel like you’ve accomplished anything.  That’s because you haven’t done anything that makes a long-term difference in the quality of your life or moves you closer to your goals.  In other words you haven’t taken time to do what’s important because you’ve been too busy doing what seemed to be urgent but wasn’t. This is one of those areas where time management requires discernment.

Keep your priorities straight

These days the overwhelming sense of hurry, hurry, hurry is easily confused with genuine urgency. Such demands can easily take control of our lives.  If we let that happen, we will never feel like we have the time to take care of our mental, physical, or emotional health.  Time is not money, time is life. That’s why it is so important to keep our priorities straight.

The only way to truly master your time is to organize your schedule each day so that you can spend the majority of time doing what is really important rather than what is merely masquerading as urgent.

Do low priority activities ever dominate your day?
Have you ever sacrificed your health because you felt rushed?
The lines are open!

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In part 2 we’ll look at how distractions and clutter rob us of our time,
and will consider some ways we can gain the upper hand.

Do you feel guilty when you’re not doing something productive? In this age of time management we can easily adopt the idea that if we are not being productive then we are wasting time. So we try to get super organized in an effort to be more productive.

We could claim our attempts to cram as much as possible into each day is based on the fact that life is short and we want to accomplish all we can. I’m sorry, but that argument just doesn’t hold water. Why? For one thing, it’s our natural tendency to seek out ways to enjoy ourselves, not to push ourselves to the limit.

How do you define time?

How we view the whole concept of time has a powerful influence on our priorities. If we buy into the “Time is money” approach introduced by Benjamin Franklin, then productivity becomes our first priority.

We all recognize that Ben Franklin was a smart guy, but when he said time is money I don’t think he was suggesting that we build our lives around that concept. By the way, he also said that “Credit is money” and we can all see the result of building an economy around that precept.

Putting a price on time

When we accept the idea that time is money we are essentially assigning a monetary value to time. How does that affect our perspective of life? It causes us (and others) to base our worth on how productive we are and how much we earn. This is a devastating point of view for several reasons. Let’s consider a few:

Fallacy #1. If I earn $50 per hour and you earn $500, then I must be worth 90% less than you are. If I accept this premise, then I will probably develop some limiting beliefs about my worth as a person. If you agree with this value scale, then you will begin to think of yourself as superior. Both of these points of view are damaging.

Fallacy #2. A highly paid professional who earns a fortune pumping deadly toxins into the environment will be viewed as more valuable than a dedicated teacher who incites his students to reach for their dreams while maintaining personal integrity. This “time is money” perspective would also place the loving, nurturing mother who gave up her career to take care of her family, on the bottom of the value scale.

Fallacy #3. The working person willingly sacrifices family time for a chance to raise his income because, in doing so, he thinks he will increase his worth as a husband and father. When he comes home too late to see his children in the evening he will sincerely explain, “I’m doing it for you.”

If time is not money then what is it?

In a sense, Ben Franklin had it right when he associated time with currency; he just chose the wrong one. You see, the value of money is tiny compared to the value of time, even though making a living does require that we spend some of our valuable time in that pursuit.

When we spend our valuable time we should view it as something that far exceeds the worth of money. Yes, it takes a certain amount of money to care for our material needs and wants, but that is just one, small aspect of life. And this brings us to the real point of this article.

Time is the currency of life

Some will argue that time is a concept created by man and that it really doesn’t exist. All I can say to that is – what happens to your life when you run out of time? See my point? We only have so much of this valuable commodity and when it’s gone all the money in the world can’t buy you more.

Here’s where a proper view of productivity can help. If our level of productivity allows us to care for our material needs while only spending half as much time doing so, then from a practical standpoint, we have actually gained a lot of time for other pursuits. In fact, isn’t that what’s behind the intellectual draw toward increased productivity? In a nut shell, more money in less time means more time doing what we want.

Keep your balance and avoid the traps

The real challenge here is to use increased productivity in a balanced way so we reap the benefits and avoid the pitfalls. Creating greater earning potential so we can spend more time doing other things will likely require a period of focus and dedication. Once our efforts begin to pay off we need to avoid the following traps.

* Getting obsessed with earning more, more, and still more.
* Allowing super productivity to become an obsession.
* Forgetting why we chose this course to begin with.
* Slipping into the time is money mindset.
* Enslaving ourselves by continually increasing our spending.
* Thinking that more income changes our worth as a person.
* Endlessly trading the currency of life for mere money.

A synergistic approach

In life, there is either synergy, or there is conflict. The secret to avoiding conflict is to harmonize life’s many aspects so that they exist in a balanced and synergistic relationship with one another. What is required to maintain that sense harmonious balance?

We need to keep the big picture in view and not allow ourselves to become hypnotized by the seductive lure of money. Our precious time is the real commodity of life. Recognizing its immense value will help us to spend it wisely.

How do you see the issue of time and money?
If your productivity saves you time, how will you spend it?
The lines are open!

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Do you wear a watch? Most people do, but just in case you forget yours; there’s a clock on your cell phone, dashboard, computer screen and hanging on the wall in almost every room you will enter today.

Why are we humans so obsessed with knowing what time it is? The reason is rather obvious, don’t you think?

We only have so much time!

That’s right; we only have so many hours in a day, days in a week, and so on. Once they’re gone, there is simply no way to get them back.

So we schedule and plan according to the clock. We make appointments and arrangements. We calculate travel time, meeting time, mealtime, bed time and wake up time. We use a schedule because the last thing we want to do is waste time.  We even try to schedule some down time and vacation time.

What does all this scheduling say about the value of time?

Time is our most valuable commodity

We even buy it and sell it as if it was the same as any other commodity, but it’s not.  We can change how we use it and who we spend it with, but once we run out there is no way to get more. So we use clocks and watches to keep track of this precious and limited commodity.

On the surface, it all seems very reasonable, especially from a productivity standpoint. The trouble is, time is more than productivity. Time is not just something we exchange for money and I think it is absolutely vital that we fully comprehend that.

Time is the essence of life

There are plenty of things you can get by without, but time is not one of them. You can live for weeks without food and days without water. But you cannot live for one second without time, and that’s true no matter who you are. No amount of influence, power or money can change the fact that, when your time is up, you are done.

Time is life itself

Time is not limited to the productive side of life because everything in life requires some of our precious time. Relationships are built from time. Every experience represents a certain amount of time. Amazingly, we spend about a third of our total time allotment sleeping.

Our humanity is all about how we spend our time.

What effect does the clock have on our humanity?

Is it a positive effect or a negative one? Is time management according to the clock beneficial to our quality of life or does it have an adverse effect?

These are great questions to ponder because we have all been convinced that the clock is our friend, even though it doesn’t always seem that way. It is true that the most financially productive people on the planet are generally strong proponents of time management. The results they produce seem to speak for themselves, don’t they?

But statistics never tell the whole story!

Remember, there is more to life than financial productivity. What about all the other aspects of their lives? Things like their family life, recreational activities, health and fitness levels, and sense of enjoyment and satisfaction. Well, for the most part we don’t know about those things. We just know that they have made a lot of money.

So obviously, time management has its place in a balanced life. We would never want to assume that being financially successful means neglecting other important areas of life. Many times, the exact opposite is true. The skills that lead to a successful mindset can be applied across the board. A truly successful life includes all those other aspects.

What about your natural rhythm?

If you feel like a slave to the clock, what can you do? I think it is healthy to allow room in our lives for a more casual view of time. We all have natural rhythms and cycles, and living by the clock can cause us to lose touch with this part of life.

Consider these two examples:

1) Is it better to eat when we are hungry or when the clock says it’s time? Sure, we can condition ourselves to be hungry at certain times, but is that really the healthiest way to live?

2) Do we know how much sleep is actually best for us personally, or does the clock control our sleeping patterns? Eight hours may work for the majority, but what does that have to do with your needs as an individual?

Everything moves in cycles

Summer has more hours of daylight and this affects everything around us. The animals, birds and plants all change with the seasons. Summer is a time of increased activity. The amount of daylight has an undeniable influence on the natural world.

Can we expect to feel the same and perform the same regardless of the season? Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are susceptible to these influences. We may be able to force ourselves to ignore them, but how does that affect our internal balance?

Reconnecting with your internal clock

Is it practical to think that we can completely break free of the clock and let nature take over? Probably not, but is there something we can do to get more in touch with our place in the natural rhythm of life?

If you can make room for it, why not try this. One day a week try to avoid letting the clock run your life. On that day, don’t set the alarm or wear a watch, and don’t make a schedule. Wake up when you feel like it, eat when you get hungry, and let your day unfold at its own pace.

Try to spend extra time in meaningful conversation and contemplation. Avoid the temptation to crowd your day with activities. Instead, relax and let go. The rhythm of life will make itself felt if you choose to allow it.

What do you think?

I wrote this article to raise some questions and stimulate some conversation. I do not have an agenda here, just a curiosity. Time is a unique concept and I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Could you make time for that?

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All of a sudden Time management information is pouring into my life and that’s good because it is one of my greatest challenges. Let’s talk about time and its relationship to life and success.

Imagine there was a bank that credited your very own account each morning with a large sum of money. But, it carried over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deleted whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out all of it, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it makes a new deposit for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits. So you must invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

Time is a truly mysterious quantity. When you are enjoying yourself, it flies past; when you are waiting for a bus, it drags by – isn’t that true? But time is the stuff from which our dreams are crafted. We must first have our dream, of course, but then our actions cause our dreams to become reality – and our actions are subject to the constraints of time.

Everyday you are blessed with a fresh 24 whole hours to do what you please. If you invest it wisely, you will turn your dreams into reality; if you squander this precious resource, you will forever be just a dreamer.

It’s impossible to dispute the value of  this unique commodity. Here’s a great quote from Carl Sandburg:

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have,
and only you can determine how it will be spent.
Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

PS. Developing a Mindset for Success can help you make the best use of your time.

Time is only as fast or as slow as your brain perceives it to be, and now researchers are finding that it may be possible to gain some control over the pace of life.

Learning how to slow down time, or getting into “the zone,” as it’s called, is not commonplace. But it is, at least theoretically, possible.

Your brain keeps track of seconds and minutes passing using a system called “interval timing.” New research has identified that certain parts of your brain are responsible for this timekeeping, including estimating how much time has passed. But these estimates are far from concrete.

For instance, it’s well-known that time goes by faster when you’re having fun, and seems slower when you’re bored. Certain drugs, such as caffeine and Valium, can also speed up or slow down time, respectively. Health conditions, too, including schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease, also interfere with your brain’s perception of time.

While drug companies believe they could make a drug that would alter your perception of time, researchers have revealed another method: your mind.

It appears that taking your focus off of time will make it seem to slow down.  Though the research on how to get into “the zone” is just beginning, the early work shows that the attention you pay, or don’t pay, to the passage of time significantly impacts your perception of it.

Source:  New Scientist

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