Time Management Isn't Real, But Attention Management Is

Think about the last time you had a deadline for something and you put it off for weeks or months or maybe just the whole week and then when you sat down to finally take care of it - how much time did it actually take you? Compared to how much time you thought it would take you when you put it off and off and off?

Here's the thing you have to change your mindset about:

When we try to manage time, we forget that the most important part of managing our time is actually being focused with our attention during the time we have dedicated to the task at hand.

In that sense, it's not about time management at all but actually all about attention management and being focused during the time that you have devoted to completing a task.

So we can block off all the time we want on our calendars to do the work, but if we aren't focused on the tasks that are urgent/timely and important and working on those during that slotted time, we can still feel like we never get anything done.

You WILL become distracted. It happens. We have at minimum 1000 things going on in our brains at a time, so you have to get good at grabbing those distractions which are also important a lot of the times, and writing them down or typing them out somewhere so they aren't lost in your brain, and then getting back to the focused attention you were working on

Here are some things to keep in mind when you're prioritizing tasks and focusing your attention:

• have a clear understanding of what is important and urgent

• don't skip prioritizing your tasks because you think it will waste the time that you do have

• as you're prioritizing and you see tasks in the "not urgent and not important" section that DO NEED TO BE DONE, think about and start asking your networks who you can delegate those tasks to

• set yourself up for success by setting a timer, tracking your time, and being realistic about how much time you can focus on a task before you'll need a break

• turn off your phone notifications while you're working during your focused time

I'll be honest, this is a continual work in progress for me too. But here's what I do to help me focus my attention on the tasks that need to be taken care of:

• I start with a brain dump of all the things that need to be done. Not just the important and urgent/timely things, but all the things that spin around in my brain, all the things that have been on my to-do list for a long time, the things I will wait to get to later when I "have more time"

• don't stop here! this is where your attention and focus can get distracted because you'll see that you've had "update my website" on your list for 4 months but is that urgent/timely and important IN THE MOMENT or do you really need to work on creating a sales email series for an offer you're finalizing? This is where your to-do list will fail you if you don't take the next step

• next step is to take your to-do and break it down into a priority map (I have an entire training on this inside Instagram Growth Lab, which you can try for $7 USD your first month)