Time is the only resource that we can’t get more of. Yet in our society, most people trade time for a resource that you can always get more of, money. You can always refill your bank account, but you can never get more time back.
The concept of time is an illusion. The only time that truly exists is the present moment. Consider the past. The past happened in the present moment previously. Consider the future. The future will happen in the present moment when that moment comes. There is nothing we can do about a previous moment now. Similarly, there is nothing we can do about a future moment now until the moment happens. Sure you may prepare for it, but great preparation means nothing without great execution.
We use many different metrics for quantifying time. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. We have specifics for times like holidays, dates, or times throughout the day like 8am or 2pm. The human race is likely the only species on the planet that tries to quantify time. For example, if you were to ask a tree, or deer, or squirrel, or just about any other species on the planet what time it is, and they could hypothetically communicate back to you, they would tell you it’s now. The present moment is the only time that exists in nature.
For this same reason, the idea of time management is inefficient. You cannot manage time. The clock will continue to tick and the seconds will continue to pass, regardless of how hard you or anyone attempts to manage time.
So if time management is inefficient because time cannot be managed, what is an efficient use of our time? Activity management. No matter what you attempt to do in order to manage time, the next moment will come, the next day will come, so will the next week, so will the next month, so will the next year, you get the point.
But what is within our circle of control is what we choose to do with our time. We at The Freedom Society call this activity management. If you are serious about your goals, we can assure you that setting aside an hour each evening to do an activity that is putting you a step closer towards your goals is much more efficient than setting aside the same hour to do the activity of watching 2 episodes on Netflix. Using your lunch break to have lunch with a mentor whose career path you want to follow is a much more efficient activity than using your lunch break for the activity of eating lunch by yourself in the break room. Waking up an hour early to get your workout in before the day starts is a much more efficient activity than the activity of trying to squeeze your workout in at some point later in the day that would replace you being able to do the activity of working on your business plan over that same window of time.
Therefore, the next time you think that the most efficient use of your time is to manage it, realize this is a lost cause as time is unmanageable. Focus on the variables that you can control which are the activities that you choose to do during the time that will go by regardless of how hard you try to manage it.