Things are particularly busy at the moment. And this seems to be a general theme with those I run into: a lot going on and not enough hours in the day.

I’m not complaining. Having several exciting projects in the works is a quality problem. However, I’ve noticed that I’ve had to work hard at keeping the ‘overwhelm’ in check lately.

Last year I wrote about the joy of being ‘in action’ in, “Squat or Get Off the Pot”.

While that’s definitely true, when the To Do list seems to grow exponentially with every item I tick off, the anxiety of wondering how it’s all going to get done can shuttle me straight to a place of wanting to stick my head in the sand … and stay there to drown out the sound as all those balls I’ve been juggling come crashing to the ground.

Time: I find it a slippery concept. Or is it a thing? Physics was never my strong suit. The clock may go ‘tick tock’ and seconds and minutes measure motion, but time itself gets experienced in different ways.

Doing ‘repeats’ at the gym may take less than a minute, but each second feels like forever. Not unlike time spent waiting … I am not the most patient person in a queue.

And yet give me something good to read or get me chatting with a friend and hours can slip by unnoticed. When we really engage, are emotionally invested and absorbed in what we’re doing, time almost disappears.

There are hundreds of ‘Time Management’ books available outlining various approaches and usually offering personal planning systems to accompany them.

Time management is something clients often bring to coaching to work on. But I find the idea misleading.

How can we manage ‘time’, this elusive concept that so often feels subjective? It conjures images of trying to tame some unwieldy yet invisible beast in a game called ‘Me Versus The Clock’.

Why not try shifting away from trying to control minutes and hours to a more practical and empowering mindset of ‘Focus Management’ instead?

Whatever we want to ‘get done’ usually ends up as a series of action items. Whatever system we’re using, this usually results in a glorified ‘to do’ list.

I personally found ‘to do’ lists, crazy-making. Yes, some days I’d power through it, ticking things off and feeling like I was ‘winning the battle’.

But then the next, an equally list long could get held up by roadblocks at every turn: people not calling back, particular information/items not available etc.

I’d be racing around, caught up in the action items. My focus was trained on my list: this next thing I needed to tick off.

If it was taking longer than expected, then my focus would turn to all the other action items getting pushed back on my neatly organised schedule, which I thought I’d figured out so well.

I see items getting shunted, left undone, rolled into tomorrow and knocking that list off course.

I could visualise the whole day being entirely unproductive and going down the toilet … why not quit right then?

What we focus on, is what we get. Focusing on a long list of things to do can be exhausting.

Focusing on running out of time is anxiety inducing. Focusing on the day being ruined is defeating. And even the best-case scenario, focusing on ticking off boxes, is hardly fulfilling. Is that really what I want from my time?

Things still need to get done. What is the alternative?

What if I’m not looking at rushing to the paint store as: ‘get paint — check’, but more as a step towards ‘creating a warm and inviting home that fills me with joy when I step through the door’.

And getting to the doctor’s appointment on time isn’t just because I made it, but because my son’s best health is the foundation for his entire being and ability to thrive in this world, which I consider my maternal mission to enable.

And what if writing this, isn’t just to get my column ‘done’, but to share my experiences and learning in hopes that it reaches even one person and prompts an insight or awareness that better enables them to be their best selves and share their unique light with the world, fulfilling one of my professional aims?

Looking at these ‘chores’ like this, suddenly my ‘to do’s take on a completely different energy, sense of personal importance and level of fulfillment in getting them accomplished.

Focusing on our objectives — the long term aims of what we want to achieve in this world and who we want to be, is so much more satisfying and empowering than getting lost in the minutia. It also enables us to be flexible.

Working down a list, the list is all we see. Working from the level of objectives, it’s often possible to generate lots of alternatives to achieve the same end.

Perhaps there’s something even more appropriate than what was on the original ‘list’ to do at this moment.

And if certain actions get road blocked or shunted, the question is: what can I do towards my goal so I feel like I’m still making progress.

Moving towards what we truly want engenders joy. We’ve all witnessed how when we’re engaged in what we’re doing, the feeling of time disappears.

A true test might be that rather than simply getting through one more torturous squat or bench press, we focus on ‘sculpting our dream body’ or ‘restoring our ultimate health’ (whatever creates personal passion) … to watch seconds turn back to mere seconds. We might even ask for more!

Whether at work or in our personal lives, we can practice defining our objectives and making them juicy.

Deciding what we really want to achieve and identifying the satisfaction those results will give us, allows us to focus on (and therefore get) what we ultimately want.

It creates flexibility, alleviates pressure and perhaps most importantly, increases our level of fulfillment throughout the process.

A shift in mindset can take us from trying to manage time to enjoying it.

Playwright William Saroyan wrote, “In the time of your life, live — so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it”.

Julia Pitt is a trained Success Coach and certified NLP practitioner on the team at Benedict Associates. For further information contact Julia on (441) 705-7488, www.juliapittcoaching.com.