The Difference Between Time Management and Task Management

I’m a runner – not a particularly gifted one, but determined. As such, I have a strategy for getting though most of my work outs: I break it down into small bits. For example, I pick a point – the next mailbox or driveway or top of the hill – and then I talk myself through to that point. I reach that mini-milestone, pick another and repeat.

This is a tried and true method of accomplishing a task, breaking it down into manageable pieces. It is a very effective way to push past the mental blocks we run into when we have a big goal in front of us. We move ourselves out of the deep end where we feel overwhelmed and a little panicky into a place that feels safer and more manageable - and there is the added benefit of accomplishment. We all love to cross things off our to-do list.

So while this may be a great tactic for chewing up a task, I’m coming to believe it is a pretty poor strategy for time management. I have found myself navigating my days by just coaching myself from one task to the next. Do you know what I’m talking about? You go from one fire to the next. You think, “I just have to do this " or I just have to get through that”. This may be a great way to get up a hill, but it puts the emphasis on the urgent rather than the important – not always the same thing.


So while it may be very useful to divide up a big project into smaller efforts, don’t forget to take a step back once in a while and take a look at the big picture. Are all you efforts, all your accomplishments, all the things you cross off your to-do list on which you spend most of your precious days and hours in the service of something bigger? What is most important to you – advancing your career? Learning a new language? Writing the next great American novel? Then make sure that that some of your daily tasks (those small, bite size chunks) are supporting that goal.


I don’t push myself from driveway to driveway just to say I’ve run past 50 driveways; the effort is part of a larger plan to prepare for a race or get stronger or faster. Why do you push yourself through your day?