Using time vs. managing time

There's a difference!

How do you know where to put your effort?

When you sit down to plan your day or week, how do you know what to work on?

We're in a really interesting time — especially within the creative industry — where knowing how to prioritize your time feels more important than ever. The idea of "managing"my time seems more and more outdated to me, and instead I've started to think about the concept of “using” my time. 

Maybe this seems like a nuanced thing, but I'm picky about language. What I've come to realize is that while time is a hard resource (i.e. there is not an infinite amount of time available), it's also wholly outside of our control. It's going to move forward no matter what… can you ever really manage that?

This probably seems a little sacrilegious coming from me. I'm a huge proponent of the methods and the tools (both digital & analog) that are born out of wanting to manage our time well. I think that once you find a system you love, it can be invaluable to know what works for you, and to actually put it to work!

SIDENOTE: I love a good paper planner, like this on from Full Focus; and after cycling through many different digital tools, I really love To-Do-ist to support all my managing-of-time-and-things.

The constraint of Time as a limited resource means embracing the truth that I can only use so much, and I can't just manage my way into having more. Sure, if I use it wisely, I'll be able to leverage it to the fullest. But if I only have this much time to use for any given activity, I need to be super clear on these elements:

• What is important for my long-term health, success, and well-being?

• What is urgent and requires my attention (usually more immediate) ahead of a specific deadline?

• What is just a thing that is floating around on the ‘that-would-be-nice’ list?