It all started when I was watching a video for Bob Procter about time. It hit me hard, are we only living in the now? Where is our past? Where is our future? And how precious is our life? How precious is time?

So, can we manage time?

You can't shift one morning hour or minute and put it at noon. Or can you?

What if I shifted an activity from morning till noon? Doesn't mean I shifted time?

You can never manage time. Time is something you are passing through, and not in control of. Like a tunnel you don't know where it ends, and you almost forget where it started. It's even something you can never expect what you will find on the way or at the other end. In the tunnel you only have to move forward with your car. Stopping or going back-wards means death. You can control your car, speed, light, etc. But you can never control the walls, lights, traffic or asphalt of the tunnel.

In Real life

You can manage humans, money, yourself, job, company, habits, your thoughts and the list go on. You can change or manage the actions, values, learnings and efficiencies of that, and it only happens in the now in the present moment. ​But can you ever change or manage the action, movement, value of time itself? No can’t do.

​Time management dictionary definition “noun”: the ability to use one's time effectively or productivity, especially at work.

​Time management is the key to efficient working.

Unlike the dictionary there is no ability to use one's time effectively or productivity, you can use the energy and effort to direct your way to the goals in your life plan.

The Myth vs. Reality

Control!

My future me once visited me and said:

Hello, I come from your future. I come from year 2035 where we discovered the time travel. Its still not widely used yet, its like ai in your time ME. I come to tell you to keep doing what your doing but please can you invest some money in (X) coin in 10 years I, you, we … will be filthy rich. And please do write the book cause your theory is correct. C ya.

Well … we will never control or mange time even if we invented a time machine. What we will change is our actions and decisions. You can control events to change the future. Then why bother wait to discover a time machine, lets start changing out actions and decisions NOW.

Busy!

How many times have you heard someone saying “I am always busy or “I don’t have time”? How many times have you been unsatisfyingly busy? We say were busy to satisfy ourselves, to feel productive. What are our outcomes? Being busy will never be productive unless it is associated with priorities and directed to our life plan. Undirected busyness to a plan will lead to an unexpected outcome. Sometimes it can be good, but what are the possibilities? Directed work will lead to a higher possibility to achievements.

Multitasking!

Now that’s a myth. Studies shows that multitasking is often inefficient and can even be dangerous, as it involves a hidden "switching cost" that reduces productivity and increases the chance of errors. Research shows the human brain isn't wired for complex multitasking, and the costs add up quickly.

The research on task switching:

Psychologists studying multitasking 1  have found that when people switch between tasks, there's a measurable time cost. Even when the switch is predictable, people are slower than when they repeat the same task. This "switch cost" has two parts: one for adjusting mental settings (which can be prepared for) and another for lasting interference from the previous task. Interestingly, it can be harder to switch to a more habitual task. For example, some studies found that people were slower to switch back to their first language than their second.

More complex or unfamiliar tasks lead to a greater time loss when switching. (We need more focus: Have you ever lowered the radio volume in your car when you realized that you lost your way? (to focus on the road, you lower the multitasking radio listening)) The more difficult the tasks, the more time is lost. This is because the brain's "executive control" processes must perform two functions to switch:

1. Goal shifting: Deciding to switch from one task to another.
2. Rule activation: Turning off the rules for the old task and turning on the rules for the new one

Although the time lost per switch is small—just a few tenths of a second—it accumulates rapidly when people frequently switch between tasks. This can lead to a significant loss of productive time, with some estimates suggesting a 40% loss. This inefficiency can also be dangerous in situations that require total focus, such as driving. Even a brief moment of distraction can have fatal consequences.

One day I will catch up!

I always heard my friend saying: “One day, when I get this job, I’ll finally focus on living. One day, when my daughter is older, I’ll rest. When I save this amount of money, I’ll finally feel secure.” His words echoed a hope so many of us carry—the belief that life will begin once the urgent tasks are out of the way, once the conditions are just right. It’s a comforting thought: that peace, joy, and freedom are waiting just around the corner. But like a mirage in the desert, the closer we get, the more it moves further away.

This is what Oliver Burkeman calls the “When-I-finally” trap. It’s the myth that someday we will “catch up” and then shift our focus to what truly matters—relationships, creativity, rest, joy. We believe that once the chaos is cleared, life will slow down and finally allow us to breathe. Yet, what really happens is that new tasks replace the old, new problems rise just as fast as old ones fade, and the space we long for never arrives.

The hard truth is this: we never catch up. The list of responsibilities refills faster than we can empty it. Every crossed-out task births two more. Every “milestone” we reach brings a fresh set of worries. Thinking we’ll arrive at a day when everything is done is like waiting for the sea to stop producing waves. It will never happen.

And because of this, life doesn’t pause. Jim Rohn teaches in The Seasons of Life that “Life and business are like the changing seasons. You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself.” There will be winters, springs, summers, and autumns in our lives—times of cold, hardship, and stillness followed by growth, blossoming, harvest, and rest. Rohn says we must learn to handle the winters instead of wishing they were gone.

He reminds us that just as nature passes through seasons, so do our lives: “You cannot change the seasons, but you can change yourself. Far too often, we wait for ‘winter’ to end, for ‘spring’ to finally arrive, or for ‘autumn’ to bring its harvest. But in doing so, we overlook what we can do now—how we can grow wiser, stronger, better—right in the winter we’re in.

Rather than waiting for perfect conditions—to have enough rest, enough money, enough time—we are invited to accept all seasons of life. To see that growth, character, meaning, and fulfillment do not wait for ideal external circumstances; they develop precisely through navigating the less comfortable seasons.

Burkeman reframes the truth in a liberating way: accept the finitude of roughly 4,000 weeks—the span of an 80-year life. This limit isn’t a prison; it’s permission. Permission to stop chasing perfection, stop waiting for “someday,” and instead choose quality over quantity, depth over breadth (range). Fulfillment is found not in catching up but in focusing deeply on fewer, richer experiences—the people we love, the work that matters, the moments that remind us we are alive.

I'M SORRY:

I’m sorry for every time I said to someone that time is money. Time is more precious than money, time is life.

​​If you're dying soon what will you do? What is the value of time now? and will you manage it the same way?

Time is life. Time is priceless. I once met with my friend for kids outing. I saw him very anxious. I asked him: what’s wrong?

He said: I make $50 an hour and I’m wasting my time here.

I wish at that time I asked him how much will he pay to get this hour if it was the last hour of your life.

Well Ill never know the answer.

What if?

What will it be like if you knew when you will pass away? Imagine that once you’re born, you are told exactly how long you will live - 80 years or only 20. How differently would you treat time then? Would those with long lives live carelessly, assuming there’s always more tomorrow? Would those with shorter lives cherish every breath, every hug, every sunrise with a sharper passion?

Perhaps it’s good that we don’t know. Uncertainty gives us hope. It keeps us from being crushed by the weight of inevitability, and it invites us to live as if today truly matters. The not-knowing is what makes life vivid, what gives each choice its urgency and each day its sacredness.

And this is where Burkeman’s reframing becomes liberating: the point is not to conquer time or catch up someday. The point is to use the time you do have — however long or short — to focus deeply on fewer, richer experiences, to choose meaning over endless productivity, and to live fully in the season you’re in. Because life isn’t something we prepare for later. Life is happening now.

Life is happening now — not someday.