More Answers... (5/18/25 Newsletter): Living Time vs Spending Time
The "More Answers..." Newsletter
Hi Everyone,
Here it is-- your Sunday boost up to offer ways to setup your workweek.
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We're in this together!
BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK!!!
"Time time time... see what's become of me.... while I looked around for my possibilities..."
Team Bangles or Team Simon & Garfunkel? 1987? or 1966? (release date) or 1968? (album's release)
Regardless, the song is timeless-- and speaking of time, over the last three weeks I've receive a lot of questions about strategy (see the current Strategy Series, with Episode 8 LIVE!) and also about time management.
As a trained social scientist (a Doctorate in Business Administration), I'm forever compelled to consider patterns of human behavior, particularly as it relates to higher performance in a work environment while increasing satisfaction and decreasing burn-out or exploitations.
What is time, REALLY?
The time questions are impacting me the most (although STRATEGY is like a DESSERT to me!!). I have a love/hate relationships with time, and my guess is you do, too. For me, as a mother of two who has been and continues to be the CEO, COO, and CFO of the household for over 15 years, I am fiercely protective of everyone's time, especially mine.
I am not fiercely focused on managing time-- just protecting it.
I'm not the type of working mom who claims to do it all, and I am definitely NOT a working mom who thinks she can squeeze it all in. I don't even identify as a "working mom" in professional environments. To me, being amom is part of who I am, like being a strategist, being a friend, being a daughter.
But with aging parents, one in a different country, we do not have help from extended family, and hiring a nanny or someone to drive the girls around doesn't make financial sense. And as a strategist who cares deeply about the quality of execution, I know all too well how quality suffers when a calendar is packed.
And I do NOT pack our calendar.
So what's the deal with TIME?
But even so, I often find myself feeling deep tension about not having enough time to get done what I want to get done, and that is exactly what many of the time-related questions coming in is about: how to best manage time.
By the way, this isn't just about being a parent-- it's about having to split up who you are across a finite number of hours when you have varying (and sometimes conflicting) priorities. Being a caregiver to anyone automatically creates this tension: aging parents, extended family, guardianships, etc.
Even those who are single without children or empty-nesters may have a profound need to pursue personal interests and hobbies, yet cannot determine ways to best manage their times; perhaps they are trying to build their early career so are working too many hours, or they are simply in a job with expectations that they work way more hours than "full time."
Who can RELATE?
Of course, if you have someone at home who manages the day-to-day, this probably doesn't impact you at all: you go to work, you go home, things are taken care of for you-- but I know for sure that most of my followers aren't in that category, and it's not because of their gender or how they identify with their roles at home: they're simply trying to make it all work with a very very full / packed life!
ONE IMPORTANT TIP FOR IMPROVED TIME MANAGEMENT:
--> Reframe your consideration of time: you do not USE time or SPEND time, you LIVE time. English is a funny language in so many ways. Gruff, brutalist, filled with idiomatic expressions, and more mechanical than communicative. The grammar is based on the lower Germanic structures from pre-1066 Norman Invasion, with the consequential vocabulary being made up of many many many French words (and the "Old Norman" language).
I studied etymology as part of my undergrad work in English Writing with a concentration in Business Writing and Rhetoric. You see, I wanted to be a speech writer after studying pre-law and science before the final declaration of my major. I know how powerful the American English language can be, especially because it relies so heavily on imagery, similes, and metaphors.
The very phrase about how we "use time" or "spend time" impacts how we cognitively think about time: that we must use it, put it to use, make way withit, settle into it, give it, invest it, "spend it" in a way where we won't get it back, put purpose into it, attach it to use.
But... no.
Just... NO.
Time is a human construct for how we standardize and relate to where we are in space and time. That's a fancy way of saying: we simply made up the concept of time, and maybe it's time we stop giving time so much power. It's a construct: a made up thing we've given meaning with a purpose. That's all it is.
Yes, it's necessary when you need to gather a team and get work done, or know when a class is after work, but that's the only time we actually "use" time: as a function of how we'll get something done or show up "on time."
Personally, I think we'd all be better off if we talked about "living time" versus "using time." Even when we spend time with family, we'd be better off thinking of living the time with them.
So that's my boost and tip for this week: see if you can begin shifting your view of time such that you are LIVING time vs USING or SPENDING time.
How does that change your decisions? Your priorities? Your outlook on time?
See you next week!!!
With kindness,
Christa
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Reference
Learn about the entry of French words in the English language after theNorman Conquest of England. (n.d.). [Video]. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/video/look-words-some-language-English-Norman-Conquest/-206809