Unlocking Ancient Time Management: Your Secret Weapon for Productivity

Why Ancient Time Management Could Be Your Secret Weapon

If you’re like me, you’ve probably noticed that many modern solutions to age-old problems tend to be over-engineered. We throw more and more technology at problems, but often we fail to make significant and lasting progress.

All that to say: if you’re struggling with time management, there’s a good chance that adding complexity to your life or searching for a novel quick-fix isn’t the answer.

Consider, instead, looking backward at the timeless solutions that our grandparents carried with them. Their wisdom might be old, but it’s aged like fine wine. And let’s be honest with ourselves, in some ways their lives were simpler and less chaotic than ours— maybe they had something figured out.

In this article, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite old-fashioned, but highly effective tips for managing your time. I’m sure with some adaptation, you’ll find them useful in your own life.

Getting up early

I don’t know about your grandparents, but mine were always early risers. My grandfather would get up early to have breakfast and coffee before anyone else woke up, and my grandmother would join him soon after. I think they figured out that the quiet, peacefulness of a morning is a great way to start the day on your own terms—without distractions.

We now know that our productivity tends to be highest in the morning, so this one is backed up by both science and experience. One of the best things I ever did for my own productivity was to get up an hour earlier than normal and use that time for focused work.

Committing to a routine

When I used to spend my summers in West Virginia at my grandma’s house, I would always notice her daily routine. While she worked around the house there was a certain music she loved to put on, and a certain time she would take a break to watch her favorite soap opera. She puttered around the kitchen in the late morning, and dinner was always at the same time each night.

It seemed odd to me then, as I was a child used to a much more unstructured life. But now I realize that it brought a sense of calm and order to her day—one that allowed her to get everything done that she needed to do. When you build a routine that works, you eliminate the need to make a bunch of small decisions each day, and instead just slide naturally into doing what needs to be done.

Making lists

My grandma was also quite religious, and she was the first person who taught me how to pray. I’ll never forget how she kept a long list in her Bible, filled with people she was praying for. She would take the time every morning to pull out that list and pray for each person by name.

That’s how powerful lists are! In my own life, I use them for tasks both big and small, important and mundane. They can help you to remember what’s important so that you don’t get caught up in the urgencies and emotions of any particular day.

Living in the moment

One thing I noticed in spending time with my grandparents is that, compared to my parents, they moved at a slower pace. I’m not sure if this was a function of their age, or the times they grew up in, but it always struck me as an attractive way to live. They certainly had responsibilities, but they never seemed stressed or in a hurry, something I can’t exactly say about my own busy life raising kids.

In my own family, we try to build in certain times where we slow down and relax together. Oddly enough, this cultivates a mindset that carries forward into the rest of our lives. I think it’s important to balance ambition with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for the simple pleasures of today. Somehow, my grandparents seemed to get this balance just right.

Doing one thing at a time

It’s well-documented that, as humans, we are terrible at multi-tasking. While it feels like we’re saving time, we actually lose efficiency when we spread our attention across multiple tasks. Besides that, multi-tasking adds a lot of stress as our brain is constantly switching contexts.

Having observed my grandparent’s generation, I don’t get the sense that they multitasked nearly as much as we do today. If people needed to attend to something, they did. If they were having a conversation, they put down what they were doing and looked each other in the eye. We have a lot to learn from them.

Breaking big tasks into smaller ones

As a general rule of thumb, I personally don’t think anyone thought about being productive back in the day. While there’s a lot of training and resources now, I wonder if we’ve overcomplicated a task that used to be the stuff of common sense. One example I learned from my children’s book is how Abraham Lincoln’s father would teach him to keep the teeth of his saw sharpened and process a big log into manageable pieces before trying to split it further.

It’s a simple finding, but I think one that captures a rule of thumb that humans have known for ages: big jobs are managed by breaking them into smaller, more controllable pieces. This is something we can easily apply to our own work, and still get the benefit as we would have a century ago.

Tracking your progress

Some of my fondest memories come from around the dinner table at my grandparent’s house. That’s where we would gather in the evening (the kids at our own little table) and enjoy a meal together. As a family that lived off of a single income, money was more tight than in today’s world, and so there was a greater effort to stretch their resources. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the evening meal is a way of tracking progress—what items of food are running low and what will be needed in the future.

Tracking progress towards a goal or project is a way of making sure that things don’t fall through the cracks. It allows you to take action before a problem becomes an emergency and keep things moving along smoothly.

Prioritizing important relationships

While my own parents were busy much of the day with work and other responsibilities, I remember my grandparents as people who had more time to dote on their grandchildren. This impression is no doubt exaggerated by my limited childhood perspective, but it really does seem like today’s world is more fast-paced and work focused.

As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate how much time my grandparents were willing to spend with me. They were passing on a multigenerational vision and a clear set of values that they wanted to instill. They prioritized their relationships, and in doing so, cultivate a sense of time wealth that is far more valuable than any material possession.

Seeing the long-term

When you don’t have much wealth or margin for error, as my grandparents didn’t, I think you develop a kind of common sense wisdom about the world. One of those lessons that I picked up from them and other adults of that generation is that you have to think more long-term. Instead of the impulsive, impulsive purchases that are rampant today, they only bought what they really needed, and tried to take care of those items so they last.

This mindset actually helped them manage their time better, too. If you’re only focused on the here and now, it’s easy to do only what is expedient for today, but might cost you down the road. It’s hard to be great at what you do without thinking long-term, and that all starts with a belief that the future matters.

Adapting everyday wisdom to the modern world

Despite all the change that has come to our world over the past 50 years, humans are still the same creatures we’ve always been. We still struggle with the same challenges and want the same things out of life. That’s what makes the timeless wisdom of our grandparents still so applicable to our lives.

You don’t have to look to the world of entrepreneurs or productivity influencers for advice on time management (though they certainly have something to offer). A simpler, more commonsense approach might be just the change you need. I hope you’ll take my experience to heart and maybe even make a phone call to an older adult in your life. You might just learn something.