How To Find More Hours In Your Day

Where I live, we will have shifted to “Daylight Savings Time” this weekend. This change led me to think about my relationship with time, how I managed it, and how fluid the whole concept of time can be.

As a driven, highly motivated professional who sets big goals, I pay a lot of attention to how I manage time. The number of things that I have on my plate forces me to be attentive about how I invest my time. My tendency is to squeeze as much as I can out of the time I have. I have a productivity system that helps keep me on track, making sure that I can deliver the right work at the right time. I view this as a foundational element for success in the modern world of work.

But I know that I also am prone to putting TOO much focus on managing my productivity. There is a definite tension there, a trade-off to be made between being present in the here and now versus being future-focused and actively pursuing goals. Life can’t be just about getting stuff done. We need balance.

Sometimes I have an energy of trying to get as much done as I can, accomplishing as many of the highest priority items on my never-ending to-do list as possible. This can lead to having the sense that there just is not enough time. It can generate stress. I suspect most of you can relate to that feeling.

The other day, I had a novel experience with time. I had the long to-do list in front of me and wondered how I was ever going to get the things done that I needed to accomplish. It appeared impossible to me, like there was simply not enough time for me to be successful.

Instead of letting that thought bother me, I let it go. I resolved to focus in on what the next thing to do was, and to just relax and do the work without worrying about the time. Just to do the work. No expectations of myself. No pressure. Just focus on the work, moving it forward as best as I could. I let go of thinking about all the other tasks that were still waiting for me. I just allowed myself to do the one task, to focus on it, and to commit to achieving that one thing.

I got that task done in quicker time than usual. So I then moved on to the next task, with the same type of energy. Nothing more than a quiet resolve to do the best job that I could with that one task, and to enjoy the experience…