Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland
Welcome to the Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland. Where we’re all about creating confident, successful, and focused leaders who manage with purpose and impact. I’m Cyndi Wentland, the founder of Intentionaleaders. And I’m passionate about learning, teaching, and coaching on all things leadership related. My purpose is to equip leaders like you with the tools, resources, and support to accomplish your goals. To learn when you want, how you want. So, if you’re an aspiring leader, first-time manager, experienced executive, or you just want to make a bigger impact in your role as an individual contributor—this podcast is for you. Because each week we’ll focus on relevant, applicable, and easy to implement skills and practices—to create focus and a deliberate path to employee engagement and business results. I know that leadership has its challenges but learning to lead shouldn’t be one of them.
Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland
Manage Your Time, Maximize Your Life: A Guide to Mindful Time Usage
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The quest for perfect time management has led many of us down endless paths searching for the ideal system or tool that will magically organize our chaotic lives. But what if we've been approaching the problem entirely wrong? What if time management isn't about managing time at all, but rather about managing our brains?
Time itself is merely a social construct—a way to organize our existence on this planet. The real challenge lies in how we think about time and the choices we make regarding its use. Oliver Burkeman's perspective in "4,000 Weeks" (the approximate lifespan of someone who lives to 80) offers a sobering reminder that our time is finite, forcing us to consider whether we're spending our limited weeks on what truly matters.
The Eisenhower Time Matrix provides a practical framework for evaluating our activities through two crucial lenses: urgency and importance. While many of us excel at handling urgent and important matters (Quadrant 1), we often neglect important but not urgent activities (Quadrant 2) like strategic planning, relationship building, and health maintenance—until they become crises. Meanwhile, we waste countless hours on activities that are neither important nor urgent (Quadrant 4), or become addicted to other people's urgencies (Quadrant 3), mistaking busyness for productivity and importance.
Perhaps most destructive is our tendency to multitask. Despite what many believe about their abilities, research consistently shows that multitasking damages our cognitive capital both short and long term. Instead, single-tasking with full presence—whether in work or with loved ones—proves far more effective. Techniques like the Pomodoro method can help train our brains to focus intently for short periods before taking earned breaks, dramatically improving both productivity and presence.
The path forward involves small, consistent habit changes that gradually transform our relationship with time. By becoming more intentional about our attention, establishing healthy boundaries around urgency, and aligning our daily actions with our core values, we can reclaim control over our 4,000 weeks and live with greater purpose and less stress. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear this message, and remember: you have complete control over your most valuable resource—your attention.
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Today, I want to talk a little bit about time Now. I get asked a lot to talk about time and stress management. Of course, those two things go hand in hand, and a lot of times I think people are in the quest for what is the new time management strategy that will simplify my life and make everything beautiful. I will be calm, I'll be organized, I'll be focusing on the things that matter most, and there's got to be some system or tool to do that right. Well, the great news is there is, and it's not a Franklin planner. There is, and it's not a Franklin planner, for those of you who remember that back in the day, but the tool is your brain. Yep, it's true, we are not going to manage the clock, we are going to manage your brain, because I think, in the quest for trying to manage time, what we lose sight of is the decisions that we're making about how we're using time. Time is a social construct. Time is just a way to organize our life on the planet, our schedules, all those kinds of things. But how we use time and how we consider time matters a lot, and that's what I want to chat about today, to give some ideas about how you can think about time, maybe in some different ways, maybe reframing it a little so that you feel like you have more control over it, because you really do. And does it matter? Of course it does when you think about our productivity at work, when you think about our work-life balance, the things that you're really focusing on in life. If you think about the last week, did you spend time where you wanted to spend your time, if that was at work, focusing on something meaningful, important, that was purposeful to you, did you spend time there? Or were you able to let work go and focus on your family, your children, the rest of your life, your hobbies, the things that bring you joy and purpose beyond the work world, and those decisions about how you use your time make up your life, and all those things occur in your brain. So, when it comes to thinking about time, I just want to offer some suggestions today for you to consider in the quest of managing your brain around the time. You have One.
Speaker 1:I have talked about this book a lot and I've done a separate podcast on it book a lot and I've done a separate podcast on it. It's called 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Berkman, and boy was this a great read. Someone recommended it to me and I thought what does 4,000 weeks even mean? But it is his premise that most of us have 4,000 weeks if we're lucky enough to live to 80, and he introduces a lot of ways to think about time. Here's a couple of them.
Speaker 1:One is you're not going to live forever. I know right, that's distressing right from the get-go, but when we know we're not going to live together and that we have finite time, it forces us to really consider how we're using it. And he talks about perfect productivity. Can we achieve that? The answer is no. Do we make the appropriate choices and trade-offs? When I mentioned thinking about last week and thinking about your family and thinking about how you use your time, was it focused on the right things and your priorities in your heart of hearts? Were you working on the things that were most meaningful to you in your life? Perfectionism he talks about that. Of course so many people do. So does.
Speaker 1:Brene Brown wrote a whole book about the gifts of imperfection. And can we embrace our ability to be imperfect and to do things in a way that is not perfect? Because perfection is unachievable and so when we strive for that, we're getting in our own way of moving forward on the things that we want to focus on. Also, I think some of the cool things that I really loved about the book in general is just reframing that finite nature of time right. There isn't one solution. And if you have 4,000 weeks, how are you using them and are you focusing on the right things? So I thought this was a really cool way to step back and think of the construct of time and how relative time is for all of us and how that creates great choices. So, with that kind of reframe, I don't know how many of you are familiar with the Eisenhower time matrix and this was something developed many, many years ago and Stephen Covey also included it in one of his books.
Speaker 1:But it's a quadrant that has there's four quadrants in it and it has to do with how urgent is something to you and how important is it to you. And he lays out this quadrant and it's really cool to consider how you're using your time in all four of these quadrants, because there's different goals in each. So quadrant one is high urgency, high importance. It means it is important. You need to do it. Maybe that's a family obligation. Maybe that's something that your children or your spouse is involved in, or maybe it is a work project. It's a client thing you have to get pay attention to what it is and be mindful about how you're using your time. But managing our attention is something that's very, very difficult. Some of the research says that our attention toggles from the past to the present 50% of the time. So if 50% of the time of our life we're not even paying attention to what we're doing in the moment, how mindful are we of doing the things that matter most in that first quadrant? So, understanding what is my goal, what is my priority it's urgent, it's important. I need to focus on it is quadrant one.
Speaker 1:Quadrant two is a little bit trickier because it is not urgent, but it's important. Think about being more proactive in your life. If you had a way to organize your schedule or do certain things proactively that allowed you to use your time in quadrant one even more effectively or to eliminate some of the fires that you're fighting in quadrant one. That's what quadrant two is all about. It's about learning or development or planning or spending time going to the gym, working out for better health, right? Is that urgent? Does it need to happen right now? Of course it doesn't. There's always tomorrow and the next day. But it's funny because if we don't do those things, we are not going to be as effective. So that's a sticky, tricky quadrant, because a lot of us delay things in that and then they ultimately become urgent. Right, let's say, I don't take care of myself, I don't watch my health. Eventually I'm going to get sick and eventually I'm going to need to take some action.
Speaker 1:Quadrant three is all about something that is high urgency but not important to you. So this is all the people coming to you with their stuff. Right, they think it's urgent, but for you it may not be. And this is a tough one for all you people pleasers out there that want to make sure that you're doing things and you're adding value. Or you feel important because someone needs you to do something, but it's really challenging to do everything that everyone needs you to do with the same sense of urgency that you have for yourself and your own priorities and goals. So the idea behind this one is really considering are you the right person to do that thing? Is it uniquely you that could do it? Could you delegate it? Could you help the person to do it themselves and thinking about strategies for even negotiating or renegotiating things that maybe someone has committed you to, and being able to think about how to preserve your time so that you can spend those times in quadrant one and two.
Speaker 1:And then quadrant four is all about low urgency, low importance. Oh man, the scrolling on social media, the looking for you know the distractions and I don't mean we all need distractions. Our brain needs them, it needs downtime. But I think what's really challenging is understanding how much time we're spending in that quadrant and are we spending way too much time in that quadrant? And I think that's what is super important. To be mindful of as well is how much time are we spending way too much time in that quadrant, and I think that's what is super important to be mindful of as well is how much time are we doing that? But even some time wasters are things that we don't consider, like that quest for perfection, or going to meetings that maybe we really don't have to go to, or doing rework, doing something again and again I will look at something and then I'll pull back out like, oh, I could do this better. I spend time doing something multiple times. That's probably not serving me well. That quest for perfection is not serving me well. So it's not just those distractions, but it's the way that we distract ourselves.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that's important in all of these quadrants is that mindfulness, and also what I think many, many, many of us tend to do is multitask. And if you look at any research that has to do with multitasking, the majority of people think they're good at it and the majority of people stink at it. And not only that, there are huge negative effects on our brain. So our cognitive capital that's what we have. Right, our brain is our most prized possession in a way, because it helps us navigate through our life. It's who we are and it's how we go through the world right In the universe. So when we multitask, we start chipping away at the effectiveness of our brain. Short term, we become less effective in terms of quality. We have less cognitive capital. The front part of our brain, our prefrontal cortex, can become very stressed by multitasking and also it hurts our brain long term. There have been studies that have shown that multitasking affects our long term memory. There are so many things that can go wrong with multitasking.
Speaker 1:So the idea behind all of these quadrants is when you're focusing your time, single task Really put your heart and soul and brain into accomplishing something that is important, with single-minded focus. And if you can do that by structuring your day, there's a technique and you might have heard of it. It's been around for decades. It's called the Pomodoro technique and you might have heard of it. It's been around for decades. It's called the Pomodoro Technique.
Speaker 1:The Pomodoro Technique is designed to help us focus for short periods of time and then give ourselves a break. So the Pomodoro is, of course, a tomato, and I remember growing up Having a Pomodoro timer. It was so cool. But now we don't need that, right, we have other kinds of technology to help us rather than a timer. But anyway, the Pomodoro technique is set the timer for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, single focus on something that's important to priority. The time is up. Then you get five or 10 minutes to do whatever you want Take a walk, do social media, anything that makes you happy, get a snack, and then you reset the timer, do it again. And when you have to get something done and when you need your full attention, when you tell your brain hey, I only need you here for 20 minutes and then you get a break, it's amazing how focused you can be and what you can get done.
Speaker 1:So the time matrix is a way to consider how you're using your time and not all things coming into us warrant the same amount of time and energy. So when we think about the things that are urgent and important, you bet get them, them done with single-minded focus and really great attention. When we have quadrant two activities, we must plan and focus time there and we have to honor that time. You're going to get honor going out for a run, going to that concert, doing something that is healthy and helpful for you, in whatever category that might be. But at work it's about being proactive, being planful, thoughtful, to eliminate some of the chaos that we feel at the job.
Speaker 1:Number three, quadrant three, is all about other people's urgency coming at us and be mindful of how you react to that. What should you do uniquely and when that urgency is coming at us? Sometimes we get a little bit addicted to it. Yes, I know Some of us and I do remember that back in my early corporate days. Urgency to me was it meant I was important or I was doing meaningful work right. The more meetings I attend, the more important I must have been, they must have needed me. And so that sense of urgency, and I can remember running to meetings, running how stupid was that that I ran. I felt like I had to run to things. And I look back at myself and I think what a dork. And I remember one time falling in the parking lot because I was running in a suit and I scraped up my brand new suit. It was light blue, anyway. What a dork.
Speaker 1:And then quadrant number four is eliminating those time wasters. Think about how you're using your energy and things that are unexpected, like unproductive meetings, redoing work, the quest for perfection. All those things are characteristics of things that we need to consider in quadrant four. So, as you consider time, there is not going to be a magic bullet to how you use your time and how you want to use your time. This is about managing your brain. This is about considering what you want from your life and how you want to use your time to fulfill your life. So five key lessons. One think about your relationship with time. Time is a mental construct and how we think about it and the finite nature of how much time we have and our purpose in life is meaningful to explore.
Speaker 1:Number two be really clear on your goals and priorities, and I don't just mean at work, although at work that's very important but in life, are you spending your time and energy on the things that matter most to you or not? Are you spending your time and energy on the things that matter most to you or not? Make sure you're aligned in your daily actions. The decisions you make, the time you spend are connected to what drives your goals, priorities, your purpose. Number three managing our attention is one of the most challenging things we can do in today's crazy cookie world, where we're just inundated with information and technology and people can literally stalk us in all kinds of ways. So there's no absence of how people can get at you. But are you protecting your time, your attention, and are you truly staying in the moment to get the things done that you'd like to?
Speaker 1:Number four is single task. I can't stress that enough, that if you want to take care of your brain, if you want to operate at a high level, short term and long term, be a great single tasker. And I don't mean like going throwing in a load of laundry or going down to get a snack or something like that. But I mean when you're doing work that is meaningful and important and you need to focus on it, or even when you need to focus on your family and be fully present at that sporting event, at that concert, at that dinner, in reading a book with your child, are you really really there? Are you singularly focused?
Speaker 1:And then, last one is think about the urgency, because urgency is something really as urgent as we believe it to be, and a lot of us thrive on urgency.
Speaker 1:We thrive on that adrenaline and we thrive on being needed and feeling like what we're doing is important. But that can also create a false sense of importance in terms of how we're using our time and sometimes compromising what's most meaningful and important and purposeful to us. So I hope you took away some tidbits, something that you can do, because really it's the small changes that we make that make the biggest difference. It doesn't mean you need to change your entire life and your whole strategy of how you're approaching time and your attention, but it means small habits make a big difference and if you can take one small action and keep doing it for a week, for a month, and then take the next small habit and do that for a day, for a week, for a month, you will start getting there and the cool thing is, you will start noticing the change. You'll start noticing your presence, your attention, you'll start noticing your mindfulness, and that's some, some, not all, but some of that stress dissipates and falls away because you are in control of your time.
Speaker 1:So use it intentionally. Be intentional with how you manage your time, your brain and your life. Listening to the Intentional Leaders Podcast, my goal is to strengthen self-awareness in both ourselves and those around us, fostering strong leadership in any role. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who would benefit from it, and don't forget to subscribe, comment and leave a review, because your support helps us reach and inspire more leaders. Here's to you being even more intentional.