Stop Lying about Time Management — 3 Secrets for Your Success and Happiness

5 min readApr 10, 2021

Shine light on Time Management Secrets to Expand Your Success and Happiness

“Are there a few words that can change somebody’s life?” my friend, Steven, asked.

“I’ll give you three words, but they stand for a handful of techniques,” I replied. “The three words are operate your brain. Those words are much more powerful than ‘time management’ or ‘a To-Do list.’”

Recently, I gave my workshop “Time Management for Stress Relief and the Cure for Procrastination” to MBA students and the chairpeople of two departments at a university.

After the participants responded to a survey and expressed how much value they received from the workshop, I realized I had additional things I wanted to share.

In this article, I’m going to share some insights that can help you expand your success and happiness.

To be more productive, we need to overcome…

3 Lies about Time Management:

To-Do Lists always work.
You can rely on only positive motivation.
Your dream can always motivate you daily.

I’ll now provide solutions related to lies about time management…

Time Management Lie #1: To-Do Lists always work.

Solution: Yearn to Personalize (“Y” of the Y.E.S. Process)

According to research, only a small percentage of the world population truly respond well to using To-Do Lists. For many of us, a To-Do List is a Guilt List and a “To-Don’t List.”

Each individual needs to personalize his or her approach to actually complete the most important tasks.

On the topic of operate your brain, simply listing your proposed actions in a To-Do list does not help. In fact, many people rebel against the To-Do List that they just wrote.

In my workshops, I identify that you need to operate your brain by focusing on three things: C.A.R — Craving — Action — Reward.

I’ll share more about “craving” in the next section.

The “bridge” over procrastination is to engage your brain’s craving.

Time Management Lie # 2: You can rely on only positive motivation.

Solution: Engage Craving

Many of us only break procrastination when we connect to a craving to stop pain. Your brain wants to use little energy, and it wants to stop pain. According to research, people are two times more likely to take action to stop pain than to work to bring something positive into their lives. This is the reason we must avoid deluding ourselves that only positive motivation works.

Many of us will only go into action so that we do not feel bad. My point is that we want to use how our brains naturally function.

For example, I have a client, “Sarah,” who wants to break her procrastination habit and do her tax return paperwork. Her brain has a craving “to feel safe.”

So, her C.A.R. Process looks like this:

Sarah’s Craving: To feel safe

Action: 20 minutes of work daily — on her tax return

Reward: A cup of mocha coffee

In this situation, Sarah creates a new habit by attaching both a craving and a reward. In my workshop, I have this phrase: “You need a C.A.R. to go forward.”

Time Management Lie #3: Your dream can always motivate you daily.

Solution: Set an Immediate Reward

In my work with clients, audiences in various parts of the world, and over 5,127 students (graduate and college levels), I’ve observed that an individual needs more than just a big goal or big dream. The person needs a strategy so that they can break procrastination every day. More than that, each type of task requires a different pattern. My client, Sarah, wants to feel safe about getting her tax paperwork submitted on time. However, she has a different craving when it comes to creating her artistic videos. Then, she’s motivated by how she imagines her audience enjoying her work. So, she’s motivated to do videos by her excitement about serving her audience. That is a positive craving.

Additionally, let’s notice that each day, we experience this pattern: “Triggered — reaction — result.”

The vital thing to do is: Use the C.A.R. Process so you break that pattern.

The positive pattern is “Triggered — C.A.R. Process — Strategic Response.” We expand our success and happiness with a response in place of an automatic reaction.

Here’s a personal example:

Tom’s Craving: Feel an accomplishment

Action: Dictate the first draft of this article in Google Docs

Reward: Phone call with a great friend (enjoy laughter and support).

So, I set an immediate reward that I receive after accomplishing the action of dictate the first draft of this article in Google Docs.

In summary, we have looked at…

3 Lies about Time Management:

To-Do Lists always work.
You can rely on only positive motivation.
Your dream can always motivate you daily.

We have explored three solutions that are embodied with the word Y.E.S:

Yearn to personalize
Engage craving
Set an immediate reward

The three solutions help you set a positive habit.
Using the C.A.R. Process will reduce your stress. You can reliably break the procrastination habit. With reduced stress, you will have more energy and that can help you maintain a relaxed and positive personal energy. This detail alone can improve your personal relationships and business relationships.

Immediately after my workshop “Time Management for Stress Relief and the Cure for Procrastination,” participants, in a survey, demonstrated that they embraced the solutions I brought to their attention.

During the workshop, I emphasized: “You don’t need more good ideas. Instead, you need to operate your brain.”