Why Time Management Is A Waste Of Time! (In My Opinion)

Hi Malcolm,

Yes I quite agree.

In fact, I think 'time management' is a bit of a misnomer and it should be 'you management', because - as you rightly say- we all have the same 24 hours. And it's how each of us prioritizes the tasks we have that makes the key difference.

I recall John Carlton relating a story about when he worked with the late, great Gary Halbert.

They were both trying to write copy and folks kept bursting in with problems: taxes were due ... the rent was overdue ... bills were past due.

So Gary merely ushered them all out and locked the door.

Then he and John spent the next six hours working on the priority, which was to write some great copy, make a truckload of cash and thus solve all those 'problems'.

And even more draconian (and over-simplistic) solution is to take Pareto's 80/20 rule and concentrate on the 20% of tasks that give you 80% of your results ...

... and then toss the other 80%, that only gives you 20% ROI, into the trash!

Well, I did say it was draconian!

Paul

It's funny because before I read the title and said to myself, "I bet that the topic is going to be about priority management over time management." I figured that because I'd heard someone say the same thing a few years ago and I've got to agree.

I see that Mr. Hooper-Kelly above me mentioned Pareto's 80/20 Law. Good stuff. You don't come across that many people who know about Pareto's Law, yet the law still works perfectly today.

Tomatoes Tomatoes.

Time Management / Priorities Management.

Sorry, but I am going to say time management works for certain type of people. There are people out there who procrastinate a lot. These kind of people will need a way to check the time to make sure he do each of today's goal in a certain length of time. Setting priority is too much work for some people. As long as I have list of today's goal, doesn't matter the priority, I just need to organize the time to complete it.

It seems like these arguments against 'time management' concentrate on semantics and that misses the point. Like it's an 'aha' moment that you can't manage time in the literal sense.

Most people associate time management with principles, habits, systems, methods and techniques to be more efficient about how they allocate their focus, effort and energy throughout the day to get better results. That subject can touch on things like psychology, habits, conditioning, tools, tips, hacks, systems and more, it's a deep topic in my view. It's a topic that's worth investing your time in, unless you're happy with the way things are.

Just a general message of 'focus on your priorities' is of no help to people. After all, people suck at setting and following through on so-called priorities. Setting priorities is a subjective thing, what makes something a priority?

There are so many ways people can lose sight by always prioritizing some business goal, while neglecting their health. Or by always focusing on some carrot, instead of enjoying the process. By going for quantity or speed and sacrificing quality. Or by being a slave to your 'priorities'. Or by adopting priorities that are really about trying to conform to expectations set by others. Or by always trying to respond to 'priorities' coming from the outside. And you can set daily priorities that seem 'important' and still find yourself going in the wrong direction in life.

I kinda agree with this. For a long time, I tried planning my daily routine by dividing every task into timeframes but that never really worked. When I stopped worrying about managing my time minute by minute, and when I started making to-do lists and priority lists I became more productive.

Focusing on your priorities is a form (or subset) of time management, so I'm not really understanding the point.

Peter Knight hit the nail on the head. Time management is a deep subject, because how people manage their time also involves their value and belief systems. An example of this is a woman that I once had as a client because she was spending a lot of time on her business, but she wasn't generating any revenue.

Initially, I thought her issue was that she had no business plan, had no prioritization list, no white board, etc. But it turned out that her issue was her mindset and how she perceived what was important and what had to be done first. Well, if you want to make money you have to sell something and she missed that point entirely.

Effective time management can make a person and their business far more productive.

RoD

Why not both?

Time = Money. We all exchange them so...?

I used to have 'to do' lists as long as my arm for each and every day and would try and work out in advance how long they would take to do and so on. Spent more time messing about with the lists than anything and as soon as one thing was cleared I had another thing to add so the list never got smaller. In the end I'd get frustrated at the big list and just end up ignoring or deleting it.

Now I work out the things I can do which will directly make me money that week and put them on a list and nothing else. My weekly to do list has just a handful of items on it and each thing I do either makes me money or puts me one step closer to making me money. I don't worry about all the smaller things that I used to so much.

If I focus all my time on things I NEED to do, when will
I complete the things I HAVE to do?

This is a great thread. I've been using and teaching the 80/20 rule for years. Another thing I teach is from a motivational poster I saw in 1971. "When you're up to your ass in alligators, it is hard to remember that the main objective is to drain the swamp!" Meaning that it is too easy to get distracted from the most important task at hand. When we take of that, then the alligators will wander off. As usual, some real gems on this forum.
To everyone's success!
Don

Really, that's what time management is. (At least that's what it's supposed to be.)

Focusing on your priorities/passion is the solution to managing your time.

I believe in what Deepak Chopra said when we increase our awareness time adjusts to us, not the other way around.

The only time management/priority management system that works for me is to ensure I get to important tasks done each day. After that I do what I want to do. It's probably more akin to priority management and this is a tip Tim Ferriss sets out in the 4 Hour Work Week (the only tips I follow daily).

Congrats to the OP with getting some attention. enjoy it while it lasts.

Sal

Or you could just hit the pause button and stop time.... oh wait not everyone has that technology yet. lol

I agree! Time management is for the corporate world :! They love this kind of giberrish! I much prefer the word focus! When you know what you want/ have to do, you don't need to manage the time! You just do it! End of! Lol