Reframing Time

A Reflection on Our Most Valuable Commodity

Time—it's something we all have, yet it feels elusive, slipping through our fingers no matter how tightly we try to grasp it.

The way we perceive time often dictates our experience of it, and for many of us, the narrative is a negative one: "There's not enough time," "I need more time," "This is taking too long." But what if the problem isn't time itself, but how we think about and manage it?

Sarah is a business owner who, like many of us, always felt like she was racing against the clock. Her days were a blur of meetings, endless emails, and a to-do list that just never seemed to shrink. No matter how hard she worked, Sarah couldn’t shake the feeling that time was slipping through her fingers.

In a mentoring conversation with a young entrepreneur, she was asked "How do you decide what to focus on each day?" It was such a simple question, but Sarah realised she didn’t really have a clear answer. She had been so caught up in managing her time—constantly watching the clock—that she hadn’t given much thought to her direction, her compass.

The question sparked something in Sarah. She started to rethink her relationship with time. Instead of seeing it as something she was constantly running out of, she began to see it as something she could shape and use to her advantage. It was a shift from feeling like there was never enough time to realise that time could actually work for her, not against her.

Productivity is not how busy you are but how purposefully you're directing your energies.

Time is not a tangible entity; it's a perception. Our mindset and thought patterns heavily influence how we perceive the use of time. We often create metrics for ourselves—standards of what good or bad time management looks like—yet these metrics can be flawed. They can lead us to believe that we are constantly running out of time, perpetuating stress and anxiety about our daily tasks.

This perception is often influenced by our lack of clarity, energy, productivity or influence. When we aren't clear about what we need to accomplish or don't have a plan in place, our perception of time becomes skewed. We begin to measure time not by its true value but by a flawed set of criteria that we have imposed on ourselves.

Redefining the Use of Time

So, how do we break free from this negative narrative? The answer lies in redefining how we perceive and use our time. Instead of viewing time as a finite resource that we are constantly running out of, we can reframe it as an opportunity to make more intentional and focused decisions.

One approach is to block out specific times for each task. Where you set intention you pay attention.

By planning each detailed step of a project and allocating time blocks to it, we shift our focus from worrying about how long something is taking to simply doing the work. As a high-performance habit, we call this - Chart your 5 moves. This method not only reduces stress but also increases efficiency and effectiveness. When we manage our time in this way, we stop feeling like we're running out of it and start realising that we have enough time to accomplish what we need.

Interestingly, small changes in how we perceive and manage time can lead to significant shifts in our experience of it.

Clients who have gone through high-performance coaching with me often report feeling like they have more time, even though the number of hours in their day hasn't changed. What's changed is their focus—by creating small but mighty habits, they are using their time differently. They are more effective and efficient, and as a result, they feel like they've gained time.

This shift in perception is powerful. It's not that they have more time; it's that they are experiencing time differently because they are measuring it differently. They are planning their days in a way that allows them to be present and focused, amplifying their time experience.

Sarah - our business owner from above - decided to make a change. Each week, she picked out her top three priorities—not just random tasks, but things that really mattered for her business. She blocked out specific times in her calendar for these priorities, treating them like non-negotiable meetings with herself. This small change—moving from reacting to whatever came up to proactively managing her time—made a huge difference.

But here’s where things really started to change for Sarah. She stopped measuring her success by how much she got done each day and started thinking more about the impact of what she was doing. Not all hours are created equal, right? So she focused on spending her time on things that really moved the needle in her business. And guess what? She started feeling less stressed and more accomplished.

As Sarah’s mindset shifted, so did her experience of time. She no longer felt like she was constantly chasing the clock. Instead, she felt more in control, using her time in a way that aligned with her goals and values. Her days became less about checking off a list and more about making meaningful progress.

Sarah’s story is a great reminder that how we think about time can completely change how we experience it. By shifting our mindset, we can turn time from something that stresses us out into something that guides us towards what really matters.

A New Narrative About Time

The key takeaway here is that our experience of time is largely dictated by the story we tell ourselves about it. If we can get a handle on our perception of time—understanding what it means to us and how we should use it—we can begin to triage what's useful and what's not. We can start to redefine what good use of time means to us and how we can truly amplify our time.

So, I ask you: What's your perception of time?

What's the story you've created about how you should use time?

Take a moment to reflect on this.

By changing your narrative, you can change your experience of time, making it not just a commodity you try to manage, but a resource you use to its fullest potential.