Time Management - Are You Making This Fundamental Time Management Mistake?



We're all so concerned with "time management." (more on why the quotes later). The "better" you manage your time, the more effective you are, and the better life is, right?

That would be true, if time existed.

What!

Bear with me. Let's take a little journey to the land of measurements.

The Mythical Inch

Does an Inch Exist?

Can you touch it, feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it ...

An inch does not exist in the physical world except as an abstract concept. It is a unit of measure, it can be marked off on something, but by itself it is just a construct by which we measure things physically in this world.

The Mythical Moment

Does time exist?

Can you touch it, feel it, smell it, taste it, hear it ...

Time also does not exist in the physical world except as an abstract concept. It is a unit of measure, it can be marked off on something, but by itself it is just a construct by which we measure the sequence of events in the world, and their speed in relation to one another.

An inch does not exist.

Time does not exist.

You can not manage what does not exist!

Can you imagine a carpenter being asked to "manage inches or feet or yards"? Inches can not be managed, because they have already been defined.

Can you manage minutes, seconds, hours, days, and control them somehow and bend them to your will? They are unyielding, unbending, because they themselves are simply regular intervals of life. They can not, and never will be, manageable.

This is exactly what we somehow expect of ourselves when we refer to "time management." Time management itself is a misnomer, as if something that did not exist could actually be managed!

If you can not manage time, then what can you manage?

The Trick: Activity Management

You can only manage your activities, measured against the backdrop of time.

From now on and forevermore, forget the term "time management" because it can not be done.

There is only activities management.

Putting the subject on proper footing makes all the difference!

If we change the definition to Activities Management, a whole new array of manageable possibilities Understanding Time Management opens up!

When managing activities, you can control:

* What activities you do
* Why you do the activities
* Where you do the activities
When you do the activities, *
* How you do the activities, including:

- Speed
- Quality
- Interactions with others
- Dependency Level
- Perfection Level

There is simply nothing else possible to manage when it comes to "time management."

These may seem like simplistic distinctions, but most people miss them precisely because they are so obvious. They never connected time management with activity management. Now go and be productive!


The "better" you manage your time, the more effective you are, and the better life is?

Can you imagine a carpenter being asked to "manage feet or inches or yards"? Inches can not be managed, because they have already been defined. Can you manage minutes, seconds, hours, days, and control them somehow and bend them to your will? They never connected time management with activity management.

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