0 - 500 / Daily Goals and Task Prioritization / Seneca

5 Top Tips on How to Use Your Time Wisely [Seneca] [On Saving Time]

By Effluo | Published March 18, 2022 | No Comments

Reading Seneca’s work, Letters from a Stoic,  specifically letter to Lucilius ‘On Saving Time’, it became evident that the topic of time management is as old as time itself.  Seneca in his letter, which is more like an essay, identified that good time management is the key to success. After identifying the importance of time management, he identified steps for how to use your time wisely.

Who was Seneca?

Seneca was born year 4 BCE and died year 65 AD into a very prominent family.   He was a Roman philosopher, statesman, and orator.   He is well known for his contribution to stoic philosophy through his writings and teachings.  

Of interesting note … His older brother was Junius Gallio is mentioned in the bible.  According encyclopedia Britannica   Junius Gallio was a Roman official who dismissed the charges brought by the Jews against the apostle Paul (Acts 18:12–17).

Can you really control time?

Time is in a constant flow, minutes turn into days, days into years, and years into your lifetime.  No, you cannot control the flow of time, however, you can control how you use the time as it flows by. Seneca points out that even though you cannot control it, you can use your time wisely.

“… certain moments are torn from us, some are gently removed, and others glide beyond our reach. The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness.”

– Seneca

Time will flow by regardless of what you do, however, it is how you chose to approach this flow is what this letter is all about.  So, what is time management?  According to Seneca, it is taking accountability for how you chose to spend this time as it flows by.

In his letter he provided an approach to time management and provided steps to use your time wisely.  

1  Set daily goals

“… you will find that the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share while we are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that which is not to the purpose.”

-Seneca

Your life is not just one defining moment, it’s a culmination of multiple smaller moments. These smaller moments make up a day, day makes up weeks, weeks months and years, and all make up your lifetime.  

How your life is spent is up to you.  You can either drift through it without a purpose or set a purpose for your life. Setting a personal mission statement will give you clarity on what goals you should achieve.  This is what will set the tone for setting your daily goals.

When you have a specific goal set for the day, you can plan around that goal.    If you have a goal and end up spending the day doing tasks unrelated to the daily goal, you will know that you are procrastinating rather than working towards goal achievement. Likewise, if you set a daily goal and completed it, you will know that you are moving closer to goal achievement. Setting daily goals that are related to the personal mission statement is the first step to use your time wisely.

Action Step:

• At the beginning of each day write down your daily goals.

2 Hold every hour in your grasp

“What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? … hold every hour in your grasp”

-Seneca

You’ve heard people complain that they simply do not have enough time for whatever it might be.   However, how often can the same people tell you what they spend their time doing?   This is analogous to the people who are in debt and do not know where their money is going.  Like money, time if not tracked, will simply disappear.

If you want to use your time wisely, then you need to have a clear understanding of how you are spending your hours. 

It is important to plan your day and lay out what you will be doing during specific hours.  However, what is even more important, but is rarely done, is tracking what was actually done in a day.  Simply write down what you did each hour of the day.  Judgement free, of course.  This should not be an exercise of self-loathing, but self-understanding.   This comparison of what was planned and what was done is essential. It will not only give you a better understanding when making future plans but it will give you accountability on how you spent your hours.

This exercise of writing down what you actually did every hour should be done any time you find yourself not completing your daily goals or procrastinating.

Action Step:

• Use a 24 hour daily calendar to write down how you spent your time.
• Alternatively, use a digital form of a calendar for tracking your time.

3 Prioritize your tasks

“Lay hold of to-day’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow’s.” 

-Seneca

Prioritizing important tasks and completing them is the key to successful time management. 

Not every task is created equal. Only you can decide what task is important, or high priority.  A good rule of thumb is, if the task is related to the daily goal, it is important. 

Also, if the task is urgent and needs to be completed that day, it is also important, but should be evaluated further.   You should determine the cause of urgency and see if this urgency can be avoided in the future.  i.e. If the task is urgent because it was rescheduled many times, you can avoid this urgency in the future by completing it on time.  Avoid the urgent tasks, you want to use your time wisely, not put out fires on regular basis.

If for some reason there is just not enough time to complete all of the prioritized tasks, go back to step 2 and track your hours.  This will show you if you are overscheduling yourself or if you are using the time to complete other things not related to what is important.

Action Step:

• Write down, prioritize, and complete your to-do tasks for each day.

4 Take action, do not procrastinate

“While we are postponing, life speeds by”

-Seneca

As you review what tasks were completed and what tasks you need to move forward, evaluate the importance of the tasks that you are moving to a future date.   If the task you are moving is not important, ask the following questions.

• How does this task bring you closer to your goals?
• Do you really need to have it completed? 
• Can someone else complete it instead?

If the task is important and related to your goals, then evaluate why it was not done, and take care to have it completed sooner rather than later.  Seneca very carefully pointed out, while you are postponing your goals and high-priority tasks, time and your life does not stop for you. To use your time wisely means taking action and completing tasks that will bring you closer to your goals.

Action Step:

• At the end of each day review what tasks were not completed and postponed.
• Identify the reason why these tasks were not completed and make changes to avoid this the following day.

5 Take control of your time  

“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.”

-Seneca

There are two ways of living your life.  You can be a passive observer or an active participant.   You can let society and other people dictate how you should live your life and spend your time.  Or, you can take an active role in deciding how you want to live your life, and actually live it.

Having a personal mission statement and a set of personals goals make you an active participant in your own life.  This means that you spent the time asking yourself who you want to be known as, what kind of life you want to live.  Then you started building your life according to the vision you set for yourself. 

No one can tell you how to spend your time unless you give them permission to do so.  As long as you realize that it is you that is giving them the permission to use your time you remain in control.  This means that you can revoke that permission at any time.  To use your time wisely means to keep ownership of your own time.

“What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity,—time!”

-Seneca

You would not allow others to steal your money.  You pay attention to where you store it, spend it, and who you give it to.   Likewise, you should take the same approach with your time.   It is your most precious commodity.  Pay attention to how you spend it and who you give it to.

Action Step:

• Have a personal mission statement and goals clearly identified. 
• Track your goals, and your time regularly.
• Know that your life is yours, and no one else can live it but you!
• Likewise, your time is yours and only you can decide how you spend it!

Summary

“I cannot boast that I waste nothing, but I can at least tell you what I am wasting, and the cause and manner of the loss;”

-Seneca

Time is in a continuous flow, there is no guarantee that you will spend all of your time productively.  Seneca pointed out that even though he cannot boast about the fact that he doesn’t waste time, he can at least tell you what he wasted it on and what caused him to do so. 

This is critical because armed with such knowledge you can take steps to prevent it in the future.  

Summary of 5 Tips to Use Your Time Wisely

1. Set daily goals
2. Hold every hour in your grasp
3. Prioritize your tasks
4. Take action, do not procrastinate
5. Take control of your time

Action Steps Summary

• At the beginning of each day write down your daily goals.
• Use a 24 hour daily calendar to write down how you spent your time. (Alternatively, use a digital form of a calendar for tracking your time.)
• Write down, prioritize, and complete your to-do tasks for each day.
• At the end of each day review what tasks you did not complete.   Identify the reason why you did not complete these tasks and make plan to avoid this in the future.
• Have a personal mission statement and goals clearly identified.  Track your goals, and your time regularly.

Know that your life is yours, and no one else can live it but you!

Likewise, your time is yours and only you can decide how you spend it!

Our quarterly planner was designed using the teachings of great people such as Benjamin Franklin, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and others. 

You can easily track and follow all of the outlined steps in the Effluo Quarterly Goal Planner.

You can read more about the Effluo Goal Planning Framework and instructions for use on the Effluo Planner Instructions.

Latest posts