It's not about time.(work life balance)

With mounting to-do lists, big projects with short delivery dates, consuming workloads, growing obligations and festering unfinished tasks, it's no wonder in this what-have-you-done-for-me-today world we often feel time deprived. Work-life flows to home-life, balance becomes imbalance, and goals and dreams get relegated to a closet shelf.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. In a recent "Winning at Working" reader survey, the most commonly articulated work problem was related to time. Overwhelmed. Overworked. Overstressed. Too much to do and too little time to do it.

But here's the reality: no matter how much we do, we will never get everything done. There isn't enough time for all that needs doing, all we want to do or we'd like to do or we should do. There never will be, even with the most sophisticated productivity, organizational and time-management approaches. Sure, they're helpful, but thinking the chaos and stress in life is caused by not having enough time is an error.

You see, the problem is not a time problem. We all have the same amount. It's a choice problem. The choices you make determine whether you're running your life, or your life is running you. And you do have choices. Sure there may be consequences to saying no, establishing boundaries or reordering priorities. But there are also consequences if you don't.

All tasks are not equal. All commitments are not equal. All responsibilities are not equal. All clients are not equal. All people of personal importance to your life are not equal. Yet many of us operate as if they were. You can do 50 things today and get little, if any, result for having done them. Or you can do one or two that bring a big return, be it emotional, financial, physical or psychological. People who are winning at working know the difference and operate accordingly.

They see time as life's currency and how it's used as a choice. Choices shape your results and your life. You get the same 24 hours each day as your co-worker down the hall. But use differs. Practice the piano eight hours a day and you'll be better than people who don't. Practice and hone your workplace talents and the same applies. Or spend time getting ready to work, shooting the breeze, surfing the web, fiddling with e-mail and you'll complete the day having traded your time for minimal results.

How you spend your time puts value on what you're spending it on. For years, I never had "time" to exercise consistently until a health issue caused me to reprioritize my choices. Funny how I managed to find the hours when I had to. Choosing to eliminate an hour of television created 365 "found" hours a year. That's nine weeks.