Hello Reader,

Fostering a good relationship with time involves aligning your actions and goals with the concept of areté, which is an ancient Greek word meaning excellence or virtue in all things. This concept can really enhance your relationship with time, guiding you to focus on quality and purpose in your actions.

So why does paying attention to areté matter, especially in our relationship with time?

While there are many reasons that areté matters when it comes to time, here are three that are worth highlighting:

1. Areté Fosters a Focus on Excellence: Areté emphasizes quality in every action. When you aim for excellence, your time is spent more effectively, as each action is purposeful and well-executed.
2. Areté is a Form of Holistic Improvement: It encourages continuous self-improvement, helping you to become more efficient and effective in various aspects of life, thereby making better use of your time.
3. Areté Aligns Your Actions and Goals: By focusing on areté, your actions align with your higher goals, ensuring that your time is not wasted on irrelevant or counterproductive tasks.

Practicing the TimeCrafting philosophy and framework can help you tap into areté in a simple and sustainable way. In fact, here’s a three-step exercise you can complete today (and regularly thereafter) that combines the elements of TimeCrafting with the concept of areté:

1. Reflect on Daily Actions: Take 5 minutes each day to reflect on your actions. Ask yourself, “Did my actions today reflect excellence? Were they aligned with my core values and goals?” This is an example of “reflective practice,” which is a key element of TimeCrafting. You can use the question as a prompt for daily journaling or craft a mantra instead of a question to use in meditation.
2. Set a Daily Intention: Each morning set a clear intention for the day. Focus on an area where you want to exhibit excellence. It could be in work, personal growth, or relationships. This is where the element of “time theming” comes in, another integral element of TimeCrafting. Using themes for time gives a place for your intentions to not just live, but thrive. Plus it gives night owls like me a chance to forego the early morning intention-setting and take care of that the day beforehand. Actually, theming can preset this for you days or weeks beforehand if you have daily, monthly, or even horizontal themes in place.
3. Evaluate and Adjust: At the end of the day, evaluate how well you adhered to your intention. Identify areas for improvement and plan how to incorporate these changes tomorrow. Remember that some form of reflection comes before and after every action. Sometimes the reflection period is noticeable and sometimes it whizzes by without leaving much of a trace. But when you sit with reflection on either side of action, it will help you stay on course and ultimately lead you to where you want to go… and who you want to be.

By regularly practicing this exercise, you’ll gradually align your actions more closely with the principle of areté, leading to a more fulfilling and efficient use of time, with greater flow and less friction.

Isn’t that something worth paying attention to?

If you’d like to learn more about areté then I encourage you to check out Brian Johnson’s book, “Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential.” The book came out just a few days ago and dives deep into the concept. It’s a comprehensive – and yet not overwhelming – exploring of areté and it’ll be a book you can refer and return to as you make your way through time.

I spoke with Brian on the 501st episode of A Productive Conversation, so if you’d like to get started there then you can check out that conversation here.​

See you later,
Mike

P.S. “The 1 Hour Holiday Action Plan” is taking place in just a few days from now. Click here to register for it for free.​

P.P.S. I've decided to share this with you a little earlier than I usually do.