Time Management is a Capitalist Construct

I'm currently editing a video of a training - Time Management for Neurodivergent Humans - I did for my Passion Pacers members in 2021. In 2022, I revamped it and did the training again for a business membership I was part of. Since then, it has been lying dormant in the content vault of my member portal, through two rebrands. (Passion Pacers became the Creatives' Rebellion, and then the Rebellion merged with the Neurodivergent Creative Pod.)

The rebellion will return in some other form, but the point of this story is that I have found a time capsule of my old teachings that were not really that long ago, and yet hold so many pieces of evidence of ways I've changed in the intervening years. 

The Concept of Time Management

Time "management" is a social construct. Obviously, hours and days pass. We age. Things need to get done in a particular order. But the idea of Sundays and Thursdays and Leap Years and noon are labels that we assigned as a collective agreement on how we would track the passage of time. 

I've spent plenty of my time on the planet unlearning the norms around time. I can see the arbitrary parts of time and schedules and calendars, and yet I also have client appointments and tasks that need to be done in a certain order. So I have to participate in time. But at the same time, I don't usually start my day until 10am at the very earliest - something that many people would find unprofessional or inappropriate. But the concept of an "appropriate" time of day to be awake is arbitrary. Thus, nah. I do not necessarily participate. 

At my last corporate job, one of the people in the shared office space would write down the times that everyone got in and settled at their desk. 8:03. 8:15. 8:27. 

First: I can't imagine a life where I am up, showered, dressed, and commuted 40 minutes away from my house by 8am anymore. That life is dead to me. Absolutely not.

Second: Wow. That guy can fuck all the way off. And that's basically what our boss told him. "Stop tracking my team's time. They get their work done." She was a great boss - encouraged us to go take a walk if we needed a break, was always down for a coffee trip into town, and understood that as long as we got the job done, the exact amount of time that our asses were in chairs was moot. 

Third: That guy regularly called another person in our *open floor plan* office. On speakerphone. And have a conversation with her that way instead of just walking ten feet. I can't. 

Accomplishment, Productivity, and Motivation

I laughed out loud when three-years-ago me talked about how harnessing the neurodivergent-friendly time management techniques that work for your unique brain would make you feel accomplished and productive. 

What buzzwords! Feeling accomplished is great. Feels very good. Makes the dopamine flow. But when I recreate this training, I won't be focusing on the sense of accomplishment, because I can tell that my underlying message was actually: you will fit in, you will be normal, you will be able to compete with the neurotypicals. 

I want my clients to unlearn the idea that productivity is social currency.

A sense of neurotypical accomplishment is not what I want to be promoting. I want to promote a sense of neurodivergent accomplishment, of good-enough-ness, of unmasking and accommodations and unlearning the idea that doing tasks is associated, at all, with morality or value. 

It's so interesting to me that only two to three years later, I'm even more divorced from the concept of time management as a means of social belonging. I use time management to get stuff done. Stuff that I want to do. Not as an afterthought, but as a dedicated priority in my life. 

Work Life Play Rest Balance

The language of "work-life balance" suggests that our priorities are split between work and stuff that isn't work. Which is true, but also not specific enough. Enter: Work Life Play Rest Balance - because these are all things that we NEED to prioritize in order to live a fulfilled and nourished life. 

WORK is all of the things that require your labor, paid and unpaid. This includes child rearing, domestic tasks, volunteer work, and anything else labor-based, including a job with a paycheck. 

LIFE is your spiritual, social, and community priorities. Attending a place of worship, being part of community groups, spending time with friends, and even scheduling yourself time to disconnect and be alone are all important aspects of the life category.

PLAY is anything done for the sake of joy. It can sometimes overlap with work - for example, when I'm working on my novel it feels playful, fun, and creative, but it's still a big executive function task that requires a lot of focus and work. 

REST is pretty obvious, but isn't just sleep. Rest includes scheduled downtime, good boundaries around that downtime, and truly restorative activities. Basically, you can't say you're taking a break but be checking work email on your phone. That's still work! 

Take Audacious Action

Wanna get in on this neurodivergent deconstruction of time management, productivity culture, and the pressure to perform? Join my FREE membership, the Neurodivergent Creative Pod. We're on Facebook and Discord!