How to be a Time Warrior

Today's blog post is from a podcast on The Art of Manliness.

If you struggle with procrastination, goal-setting, and generally moving ahead in life, the heart of your struggles may be your view of time. More specifically, that you look at it too linearly.

That’s the argument my guest today makes. His name is Steve Chandler, he’s a success and business coach, and the author of many books, including the focus of our discussion today — Time Warrior: How to Defeat Procrastination, People-Pleasing, Self-Doubt, Over-Commitment, Broken Promises and Chaos. At the beginning of our conversation, Steve shares how he personally overcame years of failure and addiction to find a fulfilling life and career. He then explains why looking at time too linearly can lead to putting things off to the future, overwhelm and over-thinking, and perpetually trying to find more information before moving on an idea. He argues that we’re better served by adopting a concept of non-linear time management, which pushes us to approach life with a bias towards action, privilege the energy of “want to” over “know-how,” and act in the now. We then discuss other tactics and mindsets you can adopt to become a “time warrior,” including being creative rather than reactive, seeing life as a game, and serving people rather than pleasing them. We end our conversation with what to do when you feel like you don’t know what to do with your life.

In simplest terms, just do it NOW.

Show Highlights

• What was life like for Steve before he found his purpose?
• What is non-linear time management?
• Why do traditional approaches to time management sometimes cause procrastination?
• How we trick ourselves into thinking we’re taking action 
• The decreasing value of more and more information 
• Why you should re-read impactful books 
• How and why to break big tasks into small, even microscopic steps 
• Gamifying your to-dos 
• Overcoming being behind on things (on a mental level, too) 
• How people-pleasing gets in the way of our accomplishing things
• What’s the role of goals in non-linear time management?
• A time warrior knows what he wants to do; what if you don’t know?

Interesting days

Today - Creamsicle Day, Social Security Day, World Calligraphy Day and Tattoo Removal Day

Tomorrow - Relaxation Day, Check The Chip Day, Lemon Meringue Pie Day, Acadian Day and Cycle to Work Day

Next Wednesday - Poet’s Day, Spumoni Day and Senior Citizens Day

September 14 - Eat a Hoagie Day, Gobstopper Day, Cream Filled Doughnut Day and Drive Your Studebaker Day

Week long celebrations:

September 9 - 15: Housekeepers Week