Hey Reader!
The other night I sat down at my desk determined to finally get organized. I opened my calendar app, my email, and three different notebooks. I started color coding, making lists, and even re-naming my folders. By the end of the night, everything looked amazing. But here’s the thing: I didn’t actually feel any less overwhelmed. I had organized every task, yet none of them felt any lighter.
And.....It got me thinking.
We talk a lot about time management as if it’s just about getting more things done. But I’m starting to realize that the how matters just as much as the what. When life feels chaotic, organizing can turn into a way of pretending we have control. We tidy the desk but never the mind. We schedule every hour, but forget to plan how we’ll handle the hours that fall apart.
I see it constantly with athletes and coaches. The ones who thrive under pressure aren’t the ones with the most perfect systems. They’re the ones who know how to adapt when the system fails. They organize their reactions, not just their routines. It’s the same reason I did an entire MentalCast episode on burnout. Burnout doesn’t come from doing too much; it comes from trying to manage chaos with the wrong kind of order.
Time management isn’t about squeezing in every commitment. It’s about protecting your attention. It’s about choosing what truly deserves your energy when everything feels urgent. In sports, that’s the difference between a team that panics and one that breathes, resets, and finds rhythm again. In life, it’s the difference between feeling productive and actually being effective.
When I hosted the Fixing Dan series, I talked about redefining what alignment really means. Time is the same. We can’t align our hours if we haven’t aligned our values. If you say you want balance but you only schedule busyness, the math never works out.
There’s a reason Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman hit me so hard. He reminds us that the goal isn’t to control time; it’s to accept that it’s finite and then build a life that reflects what actually matters. The truth is, when we feel pressed for time, we don’t need better planners. We need better priorities.
So here’s the challenge for the week:
Look at your calendar, your training plan, your daily routine, and ask one question: "does this reflect what I value, or just what I’m trying to control?"
And maybe the next time you sit down to “get organized,” start with your thoughts, not your folders. Because when things get tough, how we organize ourselves matters just as much as what we organize.
Until next time… remember, it’s either one day or day one. The choice is yours.
~Dan