On Time Management

Recently, I was chatting with some friends over lunch. They started telling me how they simply don’t have time to exercise, cook proper meals, or do anything that might improve their health or well-being.

Fair enough, I thought...until the conversation shifted. They spent the next hour enthusiastically recounting all the movies they’d watched and the series they’d binged. One even proudly showed off his PlayStation stats: nearly 500 hours of gaming in 2024!

In contrast (and I'm not one to boast) in 2024 I Read 10 books (not including the audiobooks I also listened to). I worked out or ran on average 5 times a week. I leaned new programs I needed to know for work purposes. Wrote in my journal almost daily. I climbed mount Toubkal in Morocco, ran two half marathons, participated in several fitness races, dozens of park runs and attended fitness events. On top of this, I have my full time job with long hours in events (top 5 most stressful jobs in the world) and ran event production across the globe from the USA to Europe to Asia and managed a production team. And I rehearsed and played guitar and lap steel in bands. And of course, not forgetting, I have a wife, 3 children and a dog that needs long daily walks! I still found time to cook, prep and help out wherever needed.

Here’s the thing: time is not the problem. Priorities are.

If you’re serious about finding time to exercise, read, learn, meditate, or cook, there are three hard truths you need to accept:

1. You need to be a bit selfish.Prioritising your health and personal growth sometimes means saying no to others and carving out time for yourself. It’s not selfish in the negative sense, then it’s self-care.

2. You need to sacrifice.If something matters to you, you’ll have to give up other things. It might mean fewer late nights, less TV, or gaming a little less. Sacrifice isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.

3. You need to stop doing mind-numbing stuff.We all have activities that add zero value to our lives. Whether it’s endless doom scrolling on social media, binge-watching mediocre shows, or sinking hours into a game on a daily basis, these things eat up time that could be spent on something meaningful.

   
   

I'm not saying don't do any of these things. Just prioritise and restrict or manage them to allow time for other things. If you asked me what I sacrificed, I would say mainly TV and house projects like DIY (something I do need to improve on).

We all have the same 24 hours in a day. How you use them determines what you get out of life.

Here’s what a typical weekday looks like for me when I’m working from home:

• Hours 1–7: Sleep.

• Hour 8: Get into gym clothes, have coffee, read a chapter of my book or journal, travel to the gym.

• Hour 9: Gym session and travel back.

• Hour 10: Breakfast, shower, and get ready for work.

• Hours 11–20: Work.

• Hours 21–22: Cook and eat dinner with the family.

• Hours 23–24: Handle whatever needs doing (e.g., walking the dog, putting the youngest to bed) before heading to bed myself.

Of course, it varies day to day. For instance, if I need to commute to London, I might sacrifice the morning gym session for travel time. But I’ll adapt and maybe I’ll fit in a walk or run in the evening, or read on the train instead of at home. If I'm working abroad I always get an early morning run in and get some reading time back at the hotel and on the plane.

The point is, it’s all about choices. You won’t magically “find” time; you have to make it. That means being intentional about how you spend your hours and being honest about what’s truly important to you, which should be your health and wellbeing.

So, take a step back. Look at your 24 hours. Are you investing them in the things that matter? Or are you letting them slip away on things that don’t?

Time is precious - use it wisely.

"I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying”

Andy Dufresne - Shawshank Redemption