The best time management tips start with your relationship to time and then add structure to your day. I call it the 4 Phases of Time Mastery. You move from "I do not have enough time" to "I have more than enough time," then to "time is a blessing," and finally to "I dance with time."
- Your perception of time is the story you tell yourself about it.
- The 4 Phases of Time Mastery move you from lack to abundance, to blessing, to dancing with time.
- Structure creates freedom. Plan your week on Sunday and write five priorities every day.
- Audit which phase you are in today, then speak the next declaration out loud.
What are the 4 Phases of Time Mastery?
The 4 Phases of Time Mastery is my framework for your relationship to time. Four declarations take you from scarcity to abundance, and each one is a new story you tell yourself about time.
For the longest time I lived in lack, where I never had enough time. That got magnified when my wife gave birth to our first child, something I had dreamed of my entire life. I watched the traditional eight hours of work a day get chopped down to an hour, maybe two, and I created a lot of time guilt for myself. That incongruency got me exploring my relationship to time.
| Phase | The declaration | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Beginner | "I am that I do not have enough time." | You say "I'm busy," "I'll get to it someday" and "I'm overwhelmed." |
| 2. Intermediate | "I am that I have more than enough time to get everything done." | You come from abundance, and an unfinished list is completely okay. |
| 3. Advanced | "I am that time is a blessing." | You see the blessings time gives you every single day. |
| 4. Mastery | "I am that I dance with time." | Good times and challenging times both come, and you dance with each. |
How do you change your relationship to time?
Your perception of time is the story you are telling yourself, so every phase begins with new language. The same shift moves you out of a scarcity mindset.
Phase two started when I imagined "I don't have enough time" was never an option again. I threw that excuse in the trash and created a new declaration. The world went from black and white to color.
Phase three came from a song lyric I heard at a new depth while driving: "and time is just a blessing." At home I opened Evernote and wrote down all the ways time is a blessing in my life, like time with my wife and my son, playing basketball, and working with my coaching clients.
Phase four came from a coaching client. His wife was habitually late, and when it happened before dinner he got angry and it ruined the night. I asked him to dance with her the next time she was late, because his response was his to choose. The next week she asked what he was doing, and he said, "I'm dancing with time." The light bulb went off for him, and then it went off for me.
I am that I dance with time.
What are the best time management tips for your day?
Once the story is right, add structure. These practices organize my time.
- Make time, not excuses. This quote is the foundation of how I think about time. A high performer's time will never mysteriously free up.
- Stack what matters early. There is always time in the morning. Reading at the end of the day failed for me because my energy was low, so I moved it to the start of my morning routine.
- Plan your week on Sunday. Write down everything you would like to accomplish, then go day by day and add the calls and projects already on the books.
- Write a power list. I learned this from my mentor Andy Frisella. Each day, write the five things that will move your biggest goals forward. Finish all five and you win the day.
- Run mini days. I learned this from Ed Mylett. Break your day into three chunks of time. Mine were personal growth from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m., projects and clients from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and whatever I wanted after that.
- Work in 30 minute focus sessions. Set a timer and do one thing at a time. One session is better than zero. I go deeper in how to improve focus.
What is the 3 p.m. Rule?
The 3 p.m. Rule is a rule I created for my own life: every day at 3 p.m., I am done with expectations for the day.
I noticed a lull between 3 and 4 p.m. every single day. My energy was low, I was grinding, and I was judging myself for it. So I gave myself permission to be done. Some days I walked the dog, shot hoops or went for a run. Often I came back refreshed and put in another two or three hours. The rule is one simple way to build time freedom into your day.
Why does structure give you more freedom?
I use a line from Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink: "discipline equals freedom." Structure sets the rules of the game you are going to play, and inside those rules I feel complete freedom.
Productivity coach Amber De La Garza gave me another piece on the podcast. Decide what time your workday starts, what time it ends, and which days are off. Parkinson's Law says tasks expand to the amount of time given.
Hold all of this loosely. The structure is designed to serve you.
Time is something that is with us every single day. But so rarely do we audit our relationship to time.
Rob Cressy
How do you create time freedom?
Time freedom starts with one line from the book The Big Leap that hit me at the end of a 21 day Master of Time growth game: "You're where time comes from." You get to create your relationship to time, so design one that brings you more abundance, peace and possibility. Two keys made that real for me.
- Backwards time Set a countdown timer for the hours you have to create with today. Mine ran 11 hours and 47 minutes, from the moment I got to my watch in the morning until I picked up my son from school. Watching it tick down gave me a healthier relationship to time.
- The gift of time Do things at uncommon times. I took my son to swim lessons at 3:30 on a Thursday, and in Chicago I loved going to a movie at two o'clock on a Tuesday. You can give the gift too, the way my wife gave me an hour of yoga one Tuesday night.
Do this today
- Audit your phase. Ask where you are on the spectrum of time mastery, then speak the next phase's declaration out loud.
- Write your blessings list. Open your notes and write down all of the ways time is a blessing in your life.
Listen to the episode
4 Phases of Time Mastery
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Read the full transcript
One of the biggest challenges I've had in life is around my relationship to time. For the longest time, I was living in lack where time was going away and I never had enough of it. And this really got magnified about a year and a half ago when my wife gave birth to our first child, something that I dreamed of for my entire life.
And I'd even set aside time after he was born just so I could be there with my son. But guess what? I watched where the traditional 8 hours a day got chopped down to an hour, maybe two, where I was working on things. And in the process, I felt and created a lot of time guilt for myself. And I was like, wait a second, how in the world is this happening?
This thing that is the best thing to ever happen to me in my life. And I'm sitting here living in lack. And this incongruency in my mind got me to start exploring more about my relationship to time and what in the world is going on. And what I want to share with you are the four phases to time mastery. Something that I created that took me from living in a fixed mindset to one of a growth mindset.
So let's go through each of the phases. Number one, and this is where most beginners are at. I am that I do not have enough time. You might use the words, I'm busy. I'll get to it someday. I'm overwhelmed. You're living in lack where time is in the distance. You never have enough of it. Sound familiar?
This is something that I lived for the overwhelming majority of my life. And quite frankly, it's something that most people live in because we have so many things on our to-do list that we want to get to. But we just don't get to it. And in the process, we vocalize, I don't have enough time. And I was that person. I'm sitting there with my son. And boom, I'm supposed to be so happy. But all of a sudden, I'm living in lack. And I'm like, man, what in the world is going on here?
So as I started to audit this, I'm like, all right, let's just take this off the table. Imagine if I don't have enough time was never an option. It was never an excuse I will ever use for the rest of my life. Is that a possibility? And I'm like, certainly it is.
And this is when we get to the intermediate level of time mastery. And what it is was a simple phrase or a declaration that I created. I am that I have more than enough time to get everything done. And think about this. All I did was change the framing of my language from, I don't have enough time, to I always have more than enough time to get everything done.
Because at the end of the day, our time and our perception of time, all it is, is the story that we're telling ourself. Well, if that is the case, instead of telling myself and yourself, the story of living in lack, why not create the story that we always have more than enough time? And once I created that, I was like, huh, so you're telling me I can just throw in the trash that I don't have enough time? Yeah.
And what this actually meant was, even if I had a big list of things that I wanted to accomplish, and I didn't think I was going to be able to get to all of them, that is completely okay. Because this isn't about a one plus one equals two. This is all about the story that we're telling ourself. So imagine coming from a position of abundance, where I am, that I always have more than enough time to get everything done. Man, that is an amazing feeling.
And as I started to create with this, even in the instances in which I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, Rob, what do you do in that case? It's okay. Because I always have more than enough time to get everything done. Because so often, we will audit or judge ourselves on the micro basis. I should do this now. I should get all of this done. But let's stop shooting all over ourselves. That is not serving us.
So when I went from scarcity, I don't have enough time, to I always have enough time. Man, it's like the world went from black and white to color. And I'm just sitting here. It's like, boom. Oh yeah, baby. I am loving life. And you will never hear from me speak out loud the words, I don't have enough time. Because why in the world would I create that? I would rather create the story, I always have enough time to get everything done.
So boom, I'm living this abundance. And I'm driving back from somewhere. And I'm listening to a song that I've listened to, I don't know, 50 or 100 times. And all of a sudden, I pick up on something I had never heard before, at least at this depth. And it said, and time is just a blessing. And I was like, time is just a blessing. So I drive home and I open up my Evernote. And I'm like, I am going to write down all of the ways in which time is a blessing in my life.
And with this, we get the third level of time mastery. When we go from intermediate to advanced. And this one is, I am that time is a blessing. So I wrote down on my Evernote. I'm like, all right, what are all the ways in which time is a blessing? I'm like, time is a blessing when I get to spend it with my wife and my son. And when I can play basketball, when I get to run or go to the gym, or I get to play fantasy football, or kick it with my friends, or I get to create content, or I get to work with my coaching clients, or help other people, or I get to learn new things.
And I was like, oh my goodness. For all of this time, sitting right there in front of me, I did not realize or see with my vision all of the blessings that time gave me every single day. And just like that, man, I shattered my own belief ceiling because all of a sudden, I went from, not only do I have more than enough time to get everything done, but now I am seeing time for all of the blessings that it creates in my life.
And I encourage you to do this practice in the same way that I did it. Write down immediately after this, all of the ways in which time is a blessing in your life, where it creates blessings for you. And when you see those blessings, you'll be like, wow, time creates so many opportunities to create more blessings. So not only are we living in an abundant mindset, now we're sitting here and we're adding this energy and frequency of blessings because of all that time creates for us.
So, oh baby, I'm living in this. I was like, this is the absolute best. Time is a blessing. Boom. So I've been radiating on this for the longest time. And now it's time for the fourth level of time mastery.
So a few months ago, I'm working with a coaching client and he goes, and I always ask the same question every single time. What would you love to create today? And he's like, Rob, so often on the weekends or pretty much my entire life, my wife is habitually late. She is always late for things. So it'll be Friday night and we've got dinner reservations at eight. And you know what? She will show up at 8:15 and she is going to be late. And it drives me nuts. And immediately when she shows up late, I get angry and it ruins dinner. And I do not want that to be the case.
And I was like, cool, let's create that. So we're going back and forth in dialogue and I'm like, all right, well, what about this possibility? What if the next time that your wife is late at home, you dance with her? He's like, what? I was like, yeah, I want you to dance with your wife the next time she is late. Will you do that and just see what happens?
Like, well, why? I was like, listen, because you can't control if she's going to be late or not. But what you can control is your response to her being late. So you can either choose to ruin dinner and be angry or you can choose to do something else which could be positive. So how about we dance with her and make this a good thing? Let's add some excitement, some spice. He's like, all right, I'm in. Let's do it.
Comes back the next week and I was like, hey, how'd it go? And he's like, Rob, you will not believe this. My wife was late last week for our dinner and when she came out, I started dancing with her and she's like, honey, what are you doing? And he goes, I'm dancing with time. And just like that, the light bulb went off for him but then the light bulb went off for me in my own relationship to time.
And I sat there and this is the mastery level concept. And the fourth phase is, I am that I dance with time. So all of a sudden, I started to sit back and I was like, wait a second. How is it that I can dance with time? And all of a sudden, I started thinking about it like I'm listening to No Diggity by Blackstreet. Well, but man, a little dance this way, a little dance that way.
Because in our relationship to time, everything is always not going to be puppy dogs and rainbows. You've got some good time and then you've got some challenging time. But the way that you sometimes go this way and then you go this way and it's a little dance back and forth. And the way that you dance with time and of course, there's the challenging times in your ability to see them and dance with them.
But imagine your relationship to time when you look at time and you're like, oh baby, I love all that time gives me. I'm just sitting here dancing, having the time of my life. And boom, since this moment, I've been floating on clouds because I have gone from and created in my life, I used to be the person living in lack and scarcity and not enough. I don't have enough time.
Then I went through the first to the second level of time mastery. I am that I always have enough time to get everything done. To the third level, I am that time is a blessing. To the fourth level, I am that I dance with time. And imagine what your life would be like as you move from scarcity to abundance to the next level, to the next level of time and all that you could create.
Because time is something that is with us every single day. But so rarely do we audit our relationship to time. So my encouragement for you and the call to action on this is what I would love for you to do is to audit your relationship to time. Where are you on that spectrum of time mastery?
Are you at the beginner stage where you're living in lack and not enoughness? Or have you graduated to the intermediate level where you're seeing that you always have more than enough time? What about phase three? Are you seeing all the blessings that life is giving you? Or phase four, the mastery level? Are you dancing with time where no matter what else happens, you're like, boom, baby. I am dancing with this because we have the opportunity to create a positive lens that serves us in everything that we do.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.