"How on earth did you have time to read 6 books?!" 📚
"How on earth did you have time to read 6 books?!" 📚
I got this question a lot this week after 'that' post.
Here's my honest answer: I made time. By making different choices.
But not the way you think.
You know the "rocks, pebbles, sand" metaphor we love in consulting? 🪨 ⌛ 🫙 ☕
🪨 Rocks first (important stuff), then pebbles, then sand fills the gaps?
It's missing something critical.
🫙 It assumes the jar is big enough. It's not.
This month, I said my rocks were:
✓ Read more – where the 6 books came from
✓ BJJ twice weekly
✓ 10k steps EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
That last one? Nearly broke me.
Last night: Exhausted from a day of back-to-back Teams calls. By 9pm - only ~7,200 steps.
I had two choices:
1. Let it go (it's just an arbitrary number)
2. Walk around my house for 25 minutes at 9pm
I chose option 2. Paced my house. Hit 10,000. Felt... foolish.
That's when I realised: I was optimising for the metric, not the outcome.
I wasn't walking for health or joy anymore.
I was walking for a number.
Just like when clients:
- Hit KPIs but customer experience gets worse
- Complete training but behaviour doesn't change
- Tick boxes but problems don't get solved
We confuse the metric with what actually matters.
The Achiever in me will keep going. I'll hit 10k every day through tomorrow. (Saturday will be easy)
But February? I'm choosing differently.
I looked at where my time was actually going.
Not "I’m too busy" but "where am I spending my time?"
Turns out:
- up to 2 hours/day scrolling (hello, doomscrolling)
- sometimes 90 minutes/evening, slumped in front of TV, I wasn't even watching
- 30 minutes/day on things that made me feel worse, not better
I didn't need more time.
I needed to swap what wasn't serving me for what was.
Reading instead of scrolling.
BJJ instead of mindless TV.
Deep work on personal projects that actually matter to me instead of pretending I'd do them "when I have time."
Here's what’s dawned on me: there's room for glitter in the jar.
But only if you stop trying to pack it with every rock and pebble you can find.
In February, my rocks will be different:
- 👩💼 Client work (non-negotiable)
- 👩🎨 Projects that make me feel purposeful
- 🏃♀️ Movement that feels good (not chasing arbitrary numbers)
The 10k steps? Letting them go. Walking when I want to walk.
The books? When they bring joy (which tbh the books this month did) But, not to hit a target.
The glitter? Making space for it.
Time Management isn't about fitting more in.
It's about making better choices.
What's one thing you're doing out of obligation that you could swap for something that actually serves you?
