Time is of the Essence
Blink.... and you will be 10 years older. It's crazy as I've watched my kids grow up and how quickly time passes. It feels like yesterday but when you start to really engage the thought, all of the sudden it's a life time ago.
There’s a lesser-known sci-fi film called In Time, starring Justin Timberlake, that came out over a decade ago. It wasn’t a blockbuster, but the concept behind it was brilliant....and surprisingly relevant. In this imagined world, money no longer exists. Instead, time itself has become the only currency. Everyone has a glowing digital clock embedded in their forearm, counting down the seconds they have left to live. Want to grab lunch? That'll cost you 30 minutes of your life. A cup of coffee might be four minutes. A bus ride? Two hours gone.
It’s a wild concept, but it hits close to home when you start to think about how we spend our time in the real world. The movie serves as a metaphor for how valuable our time truly is and how casually we trade it away. It challenges you to think: if every small decision came with a visible cost in time, would you still spend it the same way? Would you give it more freely? Or would you guard it like your life depended on it? Because, in many ways, it does.
Most people think they have a time management problem.
What they really have…is a focus leak.
We tend to think of distractions as momentary....an email ping, a text, a quick scroll. But the truth is, they’re silent saboteurs of your day. According to research from UC Irvine, the average person takes over 23 minutes to refocus after a single interruption. And that’s not just lost time, it’s lost clarity. When you come back to the task, you’re slower, more error-prone, and operating at a lower cognitive level.
Even ignored distractions steal from you. A single phone notification can drop your focus by up to 20%, and frequent task-switching starts to mimic the effects of sleep deprivation. The average office worker gets interrupted every 3 minutes, and nearly half the time they don’t even return to what they were doing.
You may have heard some of these stats before, but did you know the average person spends 47% of their waking hours mentally drifting? Multitasking can drop your IQ by up to 15 points, which is worse than being high on marijuana or sleep-deprived?
Just a two-second distraction can double your error rate. We now touch our phones more than 2,600 times a day and will spend over five years of our lives scrolling. If your days feel like they’re disappearing, it’s not because you’re lazy. It’s because your attention is under attack. And no one’s coming to guard it but you.
If you feel like your days vanish without traction, it’s probably not a time problem. It’s a focus problem. And focus isn’t protected by chance. It’s protected by design.
So what do we do? What's the play. Theodore Roosevelt once said "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are." I bring up this quote because there is no perfect answer, but there are some tactics I've employed in my own life that help stop the time bleed.
Schedule your priorities: It's not really a priority if you don't schedule it. Why? Life will always come at you with what seems like emergencies that have to be handled now! If you do not schedule your priorities, the urgent will always cut in front of the important. Schedule time with your spouse. Schedule time with God. Schedule time to play with your kids. Janek. Really? Yes. Ask yourself how often something gets in the way? Book it. Honor it.
Pre-decide: The average person makes 35,000 decisions a day. That is insane. Pre-decide things.... you will always choose this type of food. You will always go to the gym. You will always wake up at this time. When you have presets.... that number is cut down drastically. Reducing time wasted and stress! Planning out your day seems so simple but most don't do it. They have an "idea" of what they are going to do but it is not mapped out. Writing it down, putting it in the calendar, makes all the difference. It will make your day smooth and this is where the phrase "discipline equals freedom" comes into play.
Deep Work/Time Blocking: Uninterrupted time blocks are paramount. Often I will try to write this newsletter when I'm amongst the family, music in the background, kids yelling, wife is on a call. I feel like I'm making things happen, but in truth it takes 10x as long to complete. All the above stats play into the broken focus. Another practice I deploy in this category is never doing things for myself until everyone else in my house is taken care of and asleep. When my responsibilities are taken care of, then I can do something for me.
Define what "Done" Looks like: Before you start, be clear about what finishing means. Otherwise, you’ll chase a moving target or spiral into perfectionism. Clarity gives your brain permission to focus ...and stop. If you don’t set clear boundaries, your work will bleed into family time....and no one wins. Not your goals and definitely not your people. Your family and friends feel neglected and you don't feel like you've accomplished anything.
Your time is your real currency. We get anxious when money is wasted, but with time, we burn through it like the prodigal son. Wealthy people might spend $1,000 as casually as you spend $1, but don’t confuse this with waste. They stay wealthy because they’re astute with every dollar. The same principle applies to time. If you feel time-rich, check your balance. Odds are, you’re overspending without even noticing.
Today’s Forced Challenge: I want you to FORCE yourself to attack at least one of these challenges:
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Pick a time-taxing habit to eliminate: Scrolling, rechecking email, etc. Replace it with something that builds you.
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Plan your entire week on Sunday night: Map it out. If it’s not scheduled, it’s not happening.
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Audit your time hourly for one full week: Track exactly where your time goes, awareness precedes ownership.
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Commit to 90 minutes of deep work each day: No distractions. Choose one mission-critical task and protect it like your life depends on it.
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Spend one hour phone-free every night before bed: Reclaim your attention. Let your brain cool down.
Time is the most honest currency you have. You can’t earn more of it, and once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back. The way you spend it shapes the quality of your life. Not just in outcomes, but in presence. Attention. Meaning. If you want a better life, start by spending your time like it matters, because it does.
“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.”
– Stephen R. Covey