Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing – Miles Davis

Time isn’t the main thing: Today’s inspiration is from a time management quote from Miles Davis. Not only is time the most evenly spread out resource in the world, but it is also the most scarce. In this article, we talk about the challenges of the paucity of time to ensure that we have enough opportunities for the most important things.

Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing

– Miles Davis

This quote takes me back to a very powerful statement that Tony Robbins made a while ago

Time isn’t the only thing meaning

I’ve been there, and cribbed a lot about ‘If Only. Although they gave me a bit of a pat on the back, they never offered a solution. One of the main things to realise is that our reasons are for the ego – if they don’t offer us anything to learn from, these reasons are simply wasting our time.

Honestly, our time is best spent working towards the things we want. Being the most fleeting resource, time has a way of running away if we don’t consciously protect it. This quote from Miles Davis – Time isn’t the main thing, it is the only thing that is a stark reminder of how precious time is. This quote highlights 3 important aspects of time management. If you’re keen on the productivity angle for managing time, please look into – Time Management PPT which summarises planning and organising for time effectively.

Prioritisation of Time, Using availability for time

Our time is too precious to be doing everything. The most important thing to remember is that in order to do things that matter the most to us, we will have to say No to some things that are less important. This is to do with prioritisation and time management to ensure that you have time for the things that matter.

You can use different frameworks to ensure that you’re not wasting time on unimportant things just because they’re urgent. Some of the most popular frameworks are:

• Eisenhower Matrix of time management. The concept is fairly simple – just because someone is shouting at you, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to address it first. This matrix helps you to objectively differentiate between things that are most important vs things that are urgent.
• 4Ds of time management helps you with different things that have to be done by yourself vs the ones that can be postponed. Delegate, Defer, Do and Delete from the 4Ds that clearly indicate various strategies for your To-Do list. The most important point to remember is that you don’t have to do everything by yourself
• Pareto principle or the 80-20 rule: The rule indicates that 80% of our results come from 20% of the actions. Try to recognise what these actions are from your list. Spend time on these actions to achieve your priority goals.

The reality is, just like ourselves, people around us have priorities and naturally, they respond to their priorities. We cannot let that dictate our priorities! Sure, we don’t have to be pricks and say no to people purposefully. We can always make way for it as long as it is adjustable. But not at the cost of things which are important and urgent to us.

Time spent in Vs Time Spent on

The key thought in business is time spent on the business Vs time spent in the business. A natural extension I can make is about working on your life vs responding to everything that comes our way. Each one of us is constantly working on something or the other in our lives which is really important then.

Time spent in: It is easy to get distracted daily. The deviation can be as simple as a fight, disagreement or meeting that unreasonable deadline. It can also be something that is of utmost importance to us.

Time spent on: This is something which most often takes the back seat. It is the time to think about what is important for us; an opportunity to think through an overall perspective of the strategy of what we want to do.

Decisions on Time Management

We can either sit here and complain that all the useful time is lost on answering the everyday demands or the Time spent on items. I suppose it is up to us to find and create time for the TIME SPENT ON. The difference is as simple as being in control vs being swept away in the everyday demands of life.

Time isn’t the main thing, it is the only thing that is available to us. We don’t have any other luxury or a lack. There is no control over any other external factors that influence us. If we are not able to channel the resources we have, we start losing the right to complain about things that don’t work in our favour.

References:

Pareto principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

Miles Davis: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/54761.Miles_Davis