Most of the “productivity” gurus and books talk about time management. But time isn’t the issue. The issue is having so many things to do that they don’t fit in the day/time that you have. Time is fixed. That’s not something you can control or manage. The things you need to accomplish are the variables. Manage your tasks, not your time.

Productivity isn’t about cramming more into the time you have until you have no time left.. If that were true, you could cram everything into your day (at the cost of quality). Productivity is about saying no to things which don’t fit into the time you have, while still maintaining time for living.

It’s not about managing when you do things, it’s about limiting the things you need to do. And that means saying no, instead of saying yes so that you can have time to breathe and live.