No Such Thing As Time Management

It's another weekend! Yaaaaaaaaaay!!! I can hear you singing a song to a little jig with a wide grin. Yes, yes, yes, I’m dancing with you!!! Time to recharge and reset, because my oh my, time ran out on me this week, and the week before, and the week before, and…….. I just can’t seem to be able to manage my time and catch up.

My Sista, the truth is that TIME CANNOT BE MANAGED!

This is the stark reality we were made to face last Monday during my ‘Recharge and Reset’ guest interview with Althea Walters of Blazing Beyond.

I’m not sure whether to be shocked or relieved. You see, I kinda knew this. Why? Because I have been trying to manage my time all my life and have been like the dog chasing its tail, never quite being able to catch it. Dah!

I wonder what would happen if the dog ever caught its tail LOL LOL LOL. But that’s another matter for another time.

I almost feel relieved though, because if I really accept this fact, it means I can finally stop trying to do the impossible and focus on the possible.

There is an alternative to time management that is more within our control - self-management. Not that it’s easy, nor a recipe for happily ever after, because we do know that self-management is “ah whole neddah kettle ah fish”.

What if I told you that all the while you've been reading those time management books, taking those time management courses, and berating yourself that you just can’t get your time management right, you have been sabotaging your own efforts?

Yep! For example, those distractions that we spend hours on - scrolling through Facebook, Tic Toc and Instagram, binging on Netflix and texting on our phones. Well do the maths - that means MUCH LESS time to get the essential things done. Less time to “manage”.

How about our perfectionist tendencies that cause us to procrastinate and NOT EVEN START doing what we need to do because we believe we don’t have this or that and neeeeeeeed more information and neeeeeeeed to do more research? When we eventually start is when the deadline is upon us or has passed; and that is when we want to manage the time we no longer have.

Then let’s talk about people-pleasing. If we cannot say NO to any demand on our time and effort by friends, family members, neighbours, bosses, colleagues, clients, etc. etc. etc. we are saying NO to ourselves instead. We don’t want to disappoint anyone, so although we have work "coming out of our ears", when another request comes to “do just this one little thing”, we CANNOT say NO!!! Instead, we have said YES to soooooo much, that now we need to take a course to learn how to manage the time we gave away to everyone else.

Are you beginning to see that overwhelm and burnout has little to do with time-management afterall?

What are your self-sabotaging habits?

We learned so much more in the Recharge and Reset Interview, including some juicy tips to help us with our self-management.

If you missed it on Monday, don’t despair, you can catch the replay HERE. It will be available for the next 24 hours so your WEEKEND RESET TIP for this week is to be sure to watch the replay of Recharge and Reset Your Time.

If you found this to be useful, I would looooooove to here from you in the comments. Share it with your 'Sistas', and be sure to subscribe if you have not already.

If you want to be a part of a group of women who are together learning self-management to maximize our potential and fulfill our God-given purpose, you can join my Recharge and Reset Community of women for free right HERE.

Sharon Carruthers, the author of the ‘Weekend Reset’ blog is a child of God, wife, mother of 3, a Human Resource Management and Development Consultant, and owner of the firm, ‘Bold Consulting’. She is sharing from her own experiences for women who are holding back, or living on autopilot; who believe their identities are in others and, or in what they do; or who neglect themselves while sacrificially taking care of others. She hopes that together Christian women can embrace the future with the beautiful hope of transformation one step at a time.