The Science of Success Podcast

View Original

The Death of Time Management & How You Can Manipulate Time with Laura Vanderkam

Lace Gilger
See this content in the original post

In this episode we tell the truth about time. We throw out the old and dated conceptions of “time management” and look at how time really works. We explore the fundamental way you must flip your approach to time so that you can focus on what really matters in life. We look at how you can become an artist manipulating time at your will - stretching your best moments so that they last longer and ruthlessly removing the things that clutter your life. If you feel pressed for time - like there is never enough - and want to figure out how to create time for what really matters - listen to this episode with our guest Laura Vanderkam. 

Laura Vanderkam is the author of several time management and productivity books. Her TED talk titled “How To Gain Control of Your Free Time” has been viewed over 5 million times and she is the co-host of the podcast Best of Both Worlds. Her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and Fortune.

  • Does time management work? Is time management a concept with too much baggage associated with it to even be meaningful?

  • It’s not about cramming so much stuff into your life - it’s about focusing on the most important things. 

  • Fundamentally flip your approach - removing as much as possible is much more important than cramming as much as possible into your day

  • A day in the life of 900 busy people - and the conclusions of how the most successful people spend their time

  • People who were highly relaxed around their time had a tendency to plan “mini adventures” in their lives 

  • Putting more valuable stuff into our lives makes time more memorable. If you want to feel like you have more time you need to create more memories. 

  • Before you can improve your time and focus it on the right things - you have to begin measuring it. 

  • We have lots of stories about where our time goes - but they often aren’t true. 

  • Can we become “artists manipulating time” to stretch the best moments so that they last longer?

  • Anticipation is powerful - starting savoring before it starts

    1. Be as present as possible, notice details, think about how you might describe it to someone

    2. Tell the story of what happened - every time you tell it you get pleasure from it

    3. Commemorate it with artifacts (ticket stubs, t-shirts, etc)

    4. Play the same song over and over again to encode that song to a specific memory or experience

    5. Create as many memories as possible - more memories makes time expand 

  • Time is highly elastic - it stretches to accommodate what we need or want to fit into it 

  • Time management is not about shaving extra hours out of every day - it’s about selecting the right priorities

  • The key to time management is treating what’s important to you like a "broken water heater"

  • If you’ve ever binged something on Netflix - you found extra time because you had something that was a big priority

  • Lack of Time = Lack of Priorities 

  • Instead of saying “ I don’t do XYZ because I don’t have time” instead say “ I don’t do XYZ because its not a priority"

  • Many people never pause for 10 seconds to consider what their priorities are

  • The people who manage to take time out and think about what’s important and how they want to spend their time 

  • “Reflective Activities” like journaling, meditating, praying - stepping back from life and thinking about life - people with the highest time perception and time management scores did these every other day, the lowest scores people never did it

  • If you want to feel like you have more time - instead of picking up your phone - try thinking about your life and spending time on reflective activities and contemplative routines 

  • What’s your time perception score? 

  • It’s not that people with bad time perception and time management are working harder - the data shows that they are not - it’s that they are wasting their time on irrelevant or low value activities like social media, browsing their phone, etc 

  • Being busy is not an example of how important you are - it’s an example that you have a lack of control of your time

  • How do you create a time log and measure how you’re spending your time?

  • It’s easy to track your time - the tool is not that important - don’t let perfect be the enemy of good - start capturing at a high level where your time is going and have a holistic perspective?

  • Part of feeling relaxed about your time is knowing when and how you’re spending your leisure time

  • Letting go of expectations is a great time management strategy 

  • Planning your weeks before you’re in them is a great strategy to make time for your priorities FIRST

  • Make a 3 category priority list:

  • Career

    1. Relationships

    2. Self

  • Each one of those categories is key!!

  • A great tactic for setting your short to medium term goals - writing a “Performance Review” (for next year)

  • Look at this list all the time

    1. It can start informing your schedule choices

  • How do we create more effective morning and evening routines?

  • Homework: Track your time for a week (if you can’t track it for a day or two)

  • Homework: Plan a “mini adventure” during the work day or after work this week - do something different, put a little adventure into your life

  • Time is how we perceive it

Thank you so much for listening!

Please SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE US A REVIEW on iTunes! (Click here for instructions on how to do that).

This weeks episode is brought to you by our partners at Brilliant! Brilliant is math and science enrichment learning. Learn concepts by solving fascinating, challenging problems. Brilliant explores probability, computer science, machine learning, physics of the everyday, complex algebra, and much more. Dive into an addictive interactive experience enjoyed by over 5 million students, professionals, and enthusiasts around the world.

You can get started for free right now!

If you enjoy learning these incredibly important skills, Brilliant is offering THE FIRST 200 Science of Success listeners 20% off their Annual Premium Subscription. Simply go tobrilliant.org/scienceofsuccess to claim your discount!

Show Notes, Links, & Research

Episode Transcript

See this content in the original post