Do You Manage Time or Yourself?
My personal/professional development coach, David Neagle, recently said during a morning meeting that you can’t manage time, you can only manage your calendar.
How true! But how many of us actually look at it that way?
There is so much out there on the Internet about time management. And I’ve blogged about it too. But we aren’t actually managing time. Only God can do that (see Joshua 10:13 and Isaiah 38:8).
We can’t make time go slower or faster or stop, we can only manage ourselves and how we use the 24 hours available to us every day.
Our Best “Time Management” Tool
The most useful tool is our calendar. Choose what you like best, digital or paper, as long as it works for you.
My coach first puts in his time off. Then moves on to everything else. I’m still working on scheduling that time-off thing, but I’m getting better. I just now blocked off some days off for my birthday next year.
I use Google Calendar and sync it with my Asana account so the tasks I set there show up on my Google calendar. I see everything in one place, making it efficient.
Do you plan to publish a book next year? Schedule in your pre-launch and launch dates now, then work backwards with the tasks you need to complete to make it happen. Put those tasks on your calendar now so you don’t forget them, or worse yet, you plan a vacation at the same time.
Schedule your writing time! Because when it’s on your calendar, you won’t fill that time with something else. In other words, if it’s on your calendar, DO IT!
Your calendar isn’t “maybe I’ll do it.” It’s “I will do it.”
When you stay committed to your word—and an appointment on your calendar is a promise to be met—you are building trust in yourself that you will do what you say you will do. This builds discipline.
Make your calendar your best employee.
Do you “manage” your time? Why or why not? If so, how do you do it? Leave your comments below.
I really appreciate this post. I also use a paper calendar as well as the calendar on my phone. What stood out to me was “… an appointment on your calendar is a promise to be met …”
I faithfully calendar my appointments with other people but not for my writing time! I will start.
Thanks for this challenge.
Glad it helped, Ruth.
Great blog post, Deb! I needed to read this today. The one thing I don’t do is actually schedule my writing time on my calendar and stick to it. I have days I plan to write each week, but I don’t always carve it in stone. Having a huge family doesn’t help. If they need me to run someone to school, or pick someone up, or sit with kids in the car while Mama sees the doctor…it can be endless and I’m not that great at saying no.
I loved your thoughts on putting my book launch day and actual publishing day in my calendar now and work backward from there. I used the same concept when home schooling my kids. Whatever goal I had for them, I’d set it and work backward from there to make sure it was accomplished. Thanks for this great reminder, Deb.
Hope to publish my book in March 2026 and I’m almost done. I have my editor in place. I’m handing my book off to her in 2 weeks. Now I have to secure my book launch specialist-––she’s amazing. My cover still has to be done as well. Thanks so much for the push to get stuff into my calendar.
My favorite phrase in this whole blog is: “Your calendar isn’t “maybe I’ll do it.” It’s “I will do it.” You’ve challenged and encouraged me today in the best of ways!
On this journey together,
Deb Dufek
Deb, I’m so glad this provided you with the reminder you needed. And learning to say no when you need to isn’t easy. Sounds to me like you have the foundation already there, you just need to repair it. 🙂