Your Biggest Problem Is You Think You Have Time
Here’s how to really maximize your days
--
A time waster is my worst nightmare.
I worked with many of them in corporate. They existed for the sole purpose of wasting other humans’ time. The reason has nothing to do with intelligence.
They simply had not discovered the value of time. They didn’t realize the reason we waste so much of our time chasing money is because it buys back our time. So they unconsciously wasted time as if it were infinite.
Charles Darwin, who is best known for his thoughts on the science of evolution, knew the value of time. The inspiration for this article is an edited quote of his. “A man who dares to waste an hour of time has not discovered the value of his life.”
“The trouble is, you think you have time”
Author Jack Kornfield said this on an episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast. It has stuck with me ever since. How many of us waste the days because we think we have plenty more to come?
I used to joke with friends and family on every birthday that I was Peter Pan and lived forever. I lived that way my entire life and abused my body with alcohol. In 2015 I got the news I had narrowly avoided cancer after they found a lump the size of a golf ball in my guts and had to cut it out.
From that day on I no longer thought I had time.
My mind now tells me I’m living on borrowed time. So my time management philosophy has radically shifted.
Tragedy shapes how you think about time. The next time one happens in your life, use it to recalibrate how much time you think you have left. It will help take how you use time to the next level.
The biggest lie about productivity culture
Popular productivity advice assumes we want to complete more tasks on our to-do list. We work harder for nothing… and don’t understand why.
We actually don’t want to be more productive. What we really want is more time — Shane Parrish
