Energy Makes Time

Setting a task boundary allows us to steer our own ship. We do the task for a while, then stop, acknowledge progress, re-strategize, review how it’s going, and get back to it later with fresh energy.

There is an alternative: the unfashionable but powerful notion of letting time use you, approaching life not as an opportunity to implement your predetermined plans for success but as a matter of responding to the needs of your place and your moment in history. I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting our troubles with time are somehow all in the

Historians call this way of living “task orientation,” because the rhythms of life emerge organically from the tasks themselves, rather than from being lined up against an abstract timeline, the approach that has become second nature for us today.

These are the underlying meanings when someone says, “I don’t have enough time.” My environment is filled with inefficiencies, barriers and triggers that are sucking up my valuable time. I am ambitious and have high standards, but I don’t know exactly how to structure my day and week to tackle everything. My ambition has clouded my understanding of