You’ve probably struggled at some point with the age-old enigma of time management. You’ve wrestled with the hours, but the hours always win.

You know why? You’re fighting the wrong fight.

Time management is not finding a way to manage time. It is finding a way to manage discomfort – the discomfort of maintaining focus.

Not tasks, not time, but focus!

Yeah, that’s right. I said it. You are not going to squeeze more out of your day by getting every little thing blocked out on your calendar with some fancy task scheduling software or manual time-blocking calendar.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Mr. Shortcut Man! In the last post you told me that time-blocking was the shortcut to improve my self-care routine and get more satisfaction out of my work and my life. And now you’re saying that won’t help. Are you kidding me?!”

Look, I’m not saying not to do your time-blocking routine each day. Please do. It’s important. What I am saying is that it is not the total solution to your time management woes. Time-blocking is just the start.

Because once you’ve got time-blocking happening on a daily basis, you’re going to encounter loads of discomfort – not from the constriction of your calendar, but from the barrage of pings, dings, and rings tapping you on the shoulder all day long.

You know what I mean. Every time you sit down to focus on your next task, you get a notification from that newsletter you just signed up for, or some BS breaking news alert, or better yet something inside of you screams, “Nope! Let’s check Instagram!”

But if you can learn to manage that pain, you’ve cracked the code. So, let’s dive into a few shortcuts that can actually help you do that without losing your sanity—or your afternoon to watching cat videos on YouTube.

Step 1: Notice the Sensation

Okay, the first thing you need to do is notice when the chaos hits. Maybe you’re in the middle of writing a report, and suddenly you have an overwhelming urge to reorganize your closet (it’s 10 am on a Tuesday—why would you even THINK of doing that?!).

Simple; that’s your brain trying to bail on focus, because focus hurts.

Your brain gets bored doing the same thing over and over. It loves to switch things up and do something different. It is a data gathering monster. There’s so much more to explore than writing this report. Let’s go see what we can find!!

But that is not helpful to you right now and it is not good time management. Your job is to pay attention when this distraction first happens.

What’s the sensation? Is your heart racing? Do you have a rumble in your belly? Are you tapping your foot uncontrollably? Great, that’s what we’re working with. You’ve noticed the sensation.

Pause and breathe.

Now, ask yourself: “Am I blaming someone else for this distraction?” (Spoiler alert: you probably are). Or maybe you’re deep in shame territory, beating yourself up for not being on top of things (classic). Either way, identify what’s going on and claim it.

Step 2: Surf the Urge

Here’s where it gets fun. The next time you feel the urge to check your phone, grab a snack, or do something completely unrelated to your task, just wait. Seriously. Wait for 10 minutes. If you still need to check your Instagram after 10 minutes, go for it—but odds are, you won’t. Why? Because that urge you feel, it’s like a wave. It builds, then crests, and if you can ride it out, it crashes on the other side, leaving you in the clear.

This is what improvement feels like. It’s not about avoiding the urge; it’s about learning to sit with it and ride it out. Cowabunga dude, you just got better at life.

Step 3: Time-Block Your Tasks

Don’t forget to time-block. Remember, this is one of those things that sounds boring, but once you do it, you’ll wonder how you lived without it. Imagine your day as a series of non-negotiable meetings with yourself. Each meeting is dedicated to a specific task, and you don’t bail on them. They are set by your executive assistant (i.e. your prefrontal cortex) and you abide by your schedule because you know these meetings are not only important, they are your steps to success. If you want to move closer to achieving your goals, you need to keep your appointments exactly as they are scheduled.

There is one caveat to cancelling a meeting with yourself – you can adjust your schedule the day before the event, but once the day starts, you don’t touch it. Changing your plan during the day is like going to the gym and deciding halfway through your workout that maybe leg day should be next week.

Everybody knows you don’t skip leg day.

Step 4: Make Time for Traction

Traction is an interesting word. It’s not easy to clearly define, so let me try. Traction is obviously the opposite of distraction. But what does that mean?

Think of it like this: distraction is that all too familiar character who’s always pulling you away from your task at hand knocking you out of focus; whereas traction is the focused friend who keeps you on track actively and intentionally moving you closer to your desired goal.

And traction is all about attention management. Plan your time, not your output. Because let’s face it, some days you’ll crush 10 tasks, other days you’ll barely finish one. The key is that during your blocked-out time, you’re fully focused on the task at hand.

I find in my day that I am highly vulnerable to distractions. I just love shiny objects and interesting diversions. But when I need to focus, I make time for traction. And I do that by creating a game for myself. During my task-specific time-block, I count the number of times I am tempted by distraction to see how high I can get before I actually take my focus off the task at hand.

It might be to look out the window because a bird flew by, to glance in the direction of whatever weird noise that was, check the time, scratch an itch, whatever it is, my job is to count it and move on. Not pay any attention to it, just count it and move on.

It might sound strange counting distractions instead of minutes, but it works for me.

Step 5: Leave Your External Triggers on Red (Not Read)

Notifications are like little dopamine grenades. You think you’re being productive, and then ding! —there’s that little red dot. The tiny wave of satisfaction that someone was thinking of you (whether family, friend, or foe), but at the same time…focus, shattered.

To fix this, take back control of your environment. Silence your phone, turn off unnecessary notifications, and for the love of all things productive, leave your phone out of meetings.

One of the keys to keeping your focus is to limit the distractions you can. You can’t stop someone from entering your space and asking a question, but you can put your phone into Do Not Disturb mode or turn it off until you have completed your time-block task.

Once accomplished, go ahead and check your phone and enjoy your little dopamine hit. You deserve it!

Congratulations! You’ve just moved five steps closer to becoming a time management superhero. In your mind at least. And that means you have the attitude to confidently take that first step toward your goal.

It’s going to be hard to implement all of these steps on day one, so start where you can and add a new step each week. In a short amount of time, you’ll find yourself managing those distractions, leaning into the discomfort and gaining more and more traction each week that follows.

• So, how will you train yourself to notice your bodily sensation when distraction sneaks up on you?
• How will you surf the urge and ride the discomfort all the way out to reach the shore of accomplishment?
• And how will you make time for traction and leave those triggers unread until you’ve completed your time-blocked assignment?

Look, time management is nothing more than learning to sit with discomfort. That’s the pain we’re managing here. Every time you resist the urge to procrastinate, and instead maintain focus, you’re getting stronger. So, next time the pressure builds, and you feel like bailing, lean in. This is what progress looks like. This is what improvement feels like.

Remember, time management is pain management—and if you can handle that pain, you can handle anything.

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