Time is relative

— Albert Einstein

Even though we have clocks that show exactly the time at this moment, we have a time feeling that is different for every person at every moment.

One minute will always be 60 seconds. But only on earth.

If you would be near a back hole, you would age slower.

Time is precisely calculated, but what you do with the time and how you feel the time is passing is relative.

Every person on this planet has the same amount of time each day, but we use it differently and some successful people use it better and more efficiently than others.

Some people say “I don’t have time”, which is not possible because you have the same amount of time as everyone else. 24 hours every day.

If you say “I don’t have time” it means that the thing you want to do is not your priority. If you don’t have time to work out and get healthy, it means that your health is not your priority. Your job, your family, or whatever you are doing throughout the day is more important.

If a friend of yours says he doesn’t have time for him to meet you, it means that you are not a priority at the moment. It sounds harsh, but it’s the truth.

Your friend just has other things as a priority, like going through Instagram for an hour each day. Instagram is a higher priority.

Of course, your friend didn’t set it as a higher priority than you on purpose, but he could be addicted to Social Media or the likes, or just needs the approval of people because of some other people.

I got into that trap this week. I missed a few goals this week to write regularly every day. I didn’t do it a lot because I was busy.

But what happened? I didn’t prioritize it.

Christmas present shopping, helping prepare for the Christmas party, or preparing myself for the party was more important.

Afterward, I was too tired to write. I didn’t have the energy for ideas or for inspiration. It sounds like an excuse, and it is.

I was tired and I just watched TV.

I accept the mistake I made and learn from it that setting my online writing as a priority. I’m introducing now a morning routine to help me get my priorities straight and work on my online business and my mental and physical health first thing in the morning.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
– Steve Jobs

Prioritize!

It sounds easy. But it can be hard to get your prioritization straight and healthy.

Why? Because modern life is busy, stressful, and full of things you can get addicted to.

The fear of missing out will keep you scrolling through Instagram and watching the news. The media, advertisements, and apps are built to have your attention as long as possible.

Of course, you didn’t prioritize Instagram over talking with your friends on purpose but your addiction and your fear of missing out (and your habits) made you do it.

The Eisenhower Matrix

You have the same distractions at work. Calls, emails, meetings and questions from colleagues or your boss. All of those can distract you really fast from your actual work and can consume your whole workday.

The Eisenhower Matrix lets you divide your tasks into 4 parts. Before starting a project or your workday, analyze your to-do list and figure out the 3 most important tasks for your day.

The first step of every time management is analyzing your tasks to be able to prioritize the important ones.

Sort your to-dos in this matrix of not important, important, urgent, and not urgent!

Don’t sort it based on the values of your boss or your colleagues but based on your values, your goals, and how important it is for your project.

The matrix tells you what to do with the tasks you sorted.

The tasks that are important and urgent will be the ones you should do immediately today. An example from my work is that I have to finish drawing some detail so that I can send it to my colleague to figure out the structural engineering so that they can finish by the deadline.

The tasks that are important but not urgent are the ones that are important for your project to finish and schedule them as soon as the urgent tasks are done. Those are usually things we move away from because of more urgent tasks. Examples are sleeping, eating healthy, or exercising.

Don’t do that anymore! How?

By delegating the tasks that are in the quadrant of urgent but not important. For example, you can find a secretary to write your emails, or find a housekeeper to clean your house.

Those are things that should get done but you don’t have to do them. Someone else can do it for you.

Conclusion

If you are overwhelmed by your to-do list, if you think you have too much to do: take a step back, write down your tasks and prioritize them!

The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful tool to figure out what is important and what isn’t.

Keep in mind that you should sort the tasks based on your values and your goals, and not someone else’s. Your boss would say that everything is important and urgent. It isn’t.

And you don’t have to do everything by yourself.

One example from my busy week:

I didn’t prioritize the important things this week, but the urgent ones. I thought I had to help prepare for the Christmas party and also clean it again. But there were enough people there to help, I didn’t have to do it. I have a team for that.

Prioritization in your life is as important as at your job. Your health and your energy is more important than your work. Not many people are prioritizing it. Sleep is the first thing we decrease if we are busy. I know that.

Start today by going through the things you want to do this week and sort them based on the matrix.

Prioritize your health!

Prioritize the tasks based on your values and your goals!

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