You know the feeling. You've been scrolling through your phone for what feels like five minutes and look up to discover an hour has vanished. The fire in your chest that tells you time is slipping through your fingers sparks again — frustration, guilt, the creeping pressure of everything still left undone.
It's a sensation countless professionals know too well, even high-achievers. In 2021, a study by RescueTime revealed that knowledge workers average just 2 hours and 48 minutes of truly productive time per day, despite being "busy" for twice as long. The gap between busyness and effectiveness is the hidden time-thief. You're not lazy. You're just tangled in a system that keeps you distracted, reactive, and anxious.
So, how do you extinguish that inner fire — the one that burns hotter the more you chase time and feel it slipping away?
Here's the truth - escaping time-wasting isn't about squeezing in more. It's about shifting how you experience time.
Let's start with the Japanese philosophy of Ma (間).
Reclaiming the Power of Ma
Ma is a Japanese concept that loosely translates as "gap," "pause," or "space between." It's the silence in a piece of music that makes the notes meaningful. The blank space in a painting gives it depth. The pause in conversation that allows insight to emerge.
In your life, Ma invites you to value the spaces between action — the moments of stillness, reflection, or slow movement that modern life pushes aside.
When you're racing from task to task, trying to outrun the clock, you end up treating time like a scarce enemy. But when you integrate Ma, you change your relationship with time. You begin to create it, rather than chase it.
Steve Jobs once described how he made major decisions only after spending long periods walking in silence, doing nothing outwardly "productive." In those quiet stretches, he accessed clarity. That was his Ma.
You don't need to overhaul your life to experience this shift. Start with ten minutes a day,
Sit by a window without your phone.
Walk without music.
Breathe and do nothing in between tasks.
These are not wasted minutes. They are space-makers. Mental declutterers. The foundation for clarity and focus.
You Don't Have a Time Problem, You Have an Attention Problem
Neurologist and author Dr. Andrew Huberman explains that your brain's perception of time is directly tied to your state of focus. When your attention is fragmented — multitasking, reacting to alerts, or switching tabs — your sense of time becomes distorted. You feel rushed, but you're not moving forward.
Instead of blaming yourself for not managing your time better, question what's hijacking your attention. Is it your environment? Your emotional state? Outdated beliefs about what productivity looks like?
For example, one of my clients — let's call her Lara — was constantly exhausted. Despite working 10-hour days, she ended each week feeling she had achieved nothing of substance. When we looked deeper, her time was swallowed by low-level decisions, people-pleasing, and background anxiety. Once she identified what was draining her attention, she was able to restructure her week, say no more strategically, and introduce space for thinking. Within three weeks, she was finishing her workday two hours earlier, with more meaningful output.
You can experience this, too. The shift begins by getting to the root of what's stealing your energy — not simply trying harder.
The Lie of Efficiency - Why Doing More Is Not the Answer
You've likely been sold the myth that being efficient is the ultimate goal — that if you just optimise your calendar, use the right apps, and follow the "5 am club," your productivity will explode.
But here's the catch - efficiency without clarity only gets you lost faster.
In fact, a Harvard Business Review study found that hyper-efficient workers are at greater risk of burnout and dissatisfaction because they rarely pause to ask if what they're doing is meaningful.
Instead, shift your focus from efficiency to effectiveness. Ask,
Is this action moving me towards what truly matters?
What's the cost of saying yes to this?
Who am I becoming by doing this every day?
By embedding these questions into your daily rhythm, you begin to act with intention, not reaction. That alone will extinguish the heat of time wasted, however if you are really commited to master your efficiency and reduce overwhelm, you can download this guide - How to Conquer Overwhelm and Anchor Unshakable Clarity
Simple Practices to Redesign Your Relationship with Time
1. Design a Thinking Window
Each day, block out 20 minutes for deliberate thought. Not planning. Not reacting. Just thinking. Use this time to reflect on a challenge, review your goals, or do absolutely nothing. This is strategic emptiness. It allows deeper insights to emerge.
2. Audit Your Attention, Not Just Your Time
Track your energy, not just your hours. Note when you feel most mentally clear and when you hit a slump. Build your important work around your natural rhythms — not artificial schedules.
3. Create Boundaries That Breathe
Rigid time blocks often lead to guilt when life doesn't fit neatly inside them. Instead, structure your day with flexible anchors. For example, define your "creative zone," your "output window," and your "recovery gap." Give each a general time, but allow for variation. This reduces the mental load of perfectionism.
4. Use the 'Time Debrief' Method
At the end of your day, instead of judging yourself, ask,
What gave me energy?
What drained me?
What could I do less of tomorrow?
This rewires your brain from shame to learning.
5. Practise Micro-Ma Moments
You don't need hours of free time to access Ma. Practise small pauses throughout your day,
Three deep breaths before opening your inbox
One full minute of silence after a meeting
Looking out the window instead of picking up your phone
These are micro-resets. They soothe your nervous system and return you to presence.
Let Go of Time Anxiety by Anchoring in Meaning
The deeper reason so many of us feel we're wasting time isn't just distraction — it's disconnection. Disconnection from what matters. From who we want to become from the why beneath the doing.
When you reconnect with meaning, your sense of time expands. Ten minutes doing something aligned with your values can feel richer than ten hours of busy work.
Take a lesson from Warren Buffett, who once said, "The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything."
That clarity doesn't come from scheduling better. It comes from digging deep, understanding what matters to you, and being ruthless about protecting it. That's the work I guide you through — uncovering the root cause of your overwhelm, and realigning your daily life to what truly matters. It's not about time management. It's about inner alignment.
The Fire Isn't the Problem. It's What You Feed It
Imagine your day as a fire. You can feed it noise, pressure, and endless obligations — and it will burn hot, fast, and out of control. Or you can feed it clarity, purpose, and intentional space. Then it becomes a steady, sustainable warmth — a fire that lights your way, rather than consumes you.
You have the power to choose.
When you reclaim your time, not by doing more but by doing less with greater meaning, everything changes. You stop feeling behind. You stop burning out. And you start creating from a place of calm strength.
If you're ready to go deeper, explore my free resources here or take the first step through my book Beyond Limits, which helps you uncover your real drivers and begin to redesign your life from the inside out.
You deserve to feel in command of your time — not enslaved by it. That fire inside you? It's not your enemy. Let's give it direction.
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