We’ve all been lulled into the lie that time management is real. It’s iconic and cliche, but not true. The chief reason this is disappointing is because time management is a fairy tale at best, and an impossibility at worst.
The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot
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– Michael Altshuler
We cannot manage time. All we can do is control the activities we decide to act on with the time we have. This means that a ruthless approach on the activities we perform, and whether we should continue to pursue them. To approach your activities with the understanding that not all of them will get done does require courage. But in the end you’ll have the satisfaction that you performed the most important things, and therefore achieve peak productivity.
Potential = Performance – Interference
By appropriately engaging your time, and learning to defer certain activities that are low value. You will reduce your interference, which will increase your performance, and therefore increase your potential.
For more information, read Getting Things Done by David Allen, and understand that activity management is the main priority of achieving productivity.
I also put together a guide to the best productivity tactics that have helped me the most.