Time management does not exist

I often get asked to do Time Management training for clients and I always say "I would love to but, unfortunately, there is no such thing."

When you think about it, the idea of time management is both absurd and unhelpful. There is nothing wrong with time, it is ticking along nicely at 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour and 24 hours per day. With a leap year every 4 years to balance things up, it works just fine. So the idea that time can be "managed" somehow is ridiculous.

But that is not the biggest problem with talking about "Time Management". When we talk like that, we make it seem as if there is some external problem that we must somehow sort out when, in fact, the problem is not external - It is inside our heads.

I don't need "time" management, I need "me" management.

The reason we so often feel stressed and out of control is not because we don't have enough time and it is not because we have too much to do. It is because we are not choosing to say "No".

Saying "No" is the single key step to getting the most out of the time we have available. When I ask the groups I am working with if they would be happy to work at their current pace and stress levels until the end of their careers, about 5% say yes. The other 95% tell me that they could not carry on as things are. When I ask them if they have any realistic expectation that their colleagues, customers and boss will start to ask them to do less in the future they all say no.

So the only hope of positive change will have to come from us and that boils down to saying "No" to everything we can possibly say "No" to in order to make time for the things and people that really matter. This can feel like being a "bad employee" or "not a team player"  but the truth is that anyone who truly cares about their work and their employer should be saying "No" most of the time.

Modern technology has made it so easy to launch tasks, information and meeting requests that there will always be too many demands on our time for us to accommodate them all.

The good news is that a significant percentage of the things that are demanding our time will never make any difference to the bottom line so saying "No" to them will make no difference to the organisations well being. By saying "No" to the unnecessary, we can buy ourselves the time we need to achieve the things that will truly make a difference.