It’s Your Fault, Not Theirs | How To Manage Your Time Like A Stoic (5 Time Management Tips)

The causes of things are complicated, and rarely do they go how we’d like them to go. So it’s easy to point the finger— at other people, at unfair conditions, at the weather, at the advice we got. If it hadn’t been for _______, I’d have won. Why did so-and-so have to get involved like that? It’s all _______’s fault. And yet, the causes of things are also quite simple, at least according to the Stoics. Because to them, the fault always lies with us.---It is the only thing you have. Don’t waste it. Seize it. Live it. Ryan outlines some of the tips the Stoics used used to make the most of their time. Meditate on them. Come back to them often. But most importantly, apply them. Check out the Tempus Fugit medallion to help remind yourself why you manage your time.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these Stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  The causes of things are complicated, and rarely do they go how we'd like them to go. So it's easy to point the finger at other people, at unfair conditions, the weather, at the advice we got. If it hadn't been for [blank], I'd have won. Why did so-and-so have to get involved like that? It's all [blank's] fault. And yet, the causes of things are also quite simple, at least according to the Stoics, because to them, the fault always lies with us. "We're the one who chose to listen to that advice," they'd say. "We're the one who left the outcome up to chance, who didn't plan for all the contingencies. We're the one whose expectations set us up to be disappointed."

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Marcus Aurelius's rule was, blame yourself or blame no one. It's the other side of the idea we were talking about not long ago, that the only place to look for approval is within yourself. The same goes for disapproval and fault-finding. As soon as you try to get it from other people, you've compromised your integrity, you've handed over your power. So either don't blame anyone, or blame yourself for everything that happens. Those are your only options.

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. Time, it's our most precious resource. It's the thing we have the least of, and yet it's the thing we are the worst at managing. Seneca says, "It's not that life is short, it's just that we waste a lot of it." And he says, "We waste a lot of it because we don't have a system. Our life is without design. It is erratic," he said. Well, in today's episode, we're going to talk about time management from the Stoics, how to manage your time like a Stoic, some real Stoic time management tips, which are critical because, you know, this present moment is the most valuable thing that you own. It's the only thing that you have. You don't want to waste it. You want to seize it. You want to live

• 2:35Ryan Holiday?

  it. You want to get the most out of it. And excited to bring you some time management tips from the Stoics. And related to that, I'm holding this here. This is my Tempest Fugit medallion. If you listen to the Daily Dad Podcast or get the Daily Dad email, which you should, dailydad.com. I made this little thing to remind myself why I manage my time. Because when I'm frivolous with my time, I'm not just harming my work, but I'm also harming my kids, right? Time flies, as that means in Latin, and your kids grow up very fast. Anyways, I wanted a reminder of that. You can check that out at store.dailydad.com. I'll link to that in today's show notes. But enjoy these time management tips from the Stoics.

• 3:22Ryan Holiday?

  You've got to know what your time is worth. Seneca says, "Never give anyone an hour of your time without a return." It doesn't mean that you don't ever be generous. You don't help people. That's not what it means at all. It means understanding that your life, your time, is your most precious resource. And every time you give it away, every time you spend it, you can never get it back. It's a non-renewable resource. So you have to understand literally what is an hour of your time worth. And that's why you outsource things that cost less than what you get paid for that time. That's why you say no to things that you don't really want to do, that you don't have to do. You have to protect Your time, right? When we think about memento mori from the Stoics, it's really this, that it's our most precious resource

• 4:07Ryan Holiday?

  and that we have to protect it. We have to understand what it's worth and not fritter it away, not sell it too cheaply, but protect it because it matters. They're not paying you to do the thing. They're paying you to leave your house. That's one of the things that Stoicism has taught me, realizing that time is the precious resource. But they're buying from you is your life. Not only are they buying the fact that you can't do something else while you're doing the thing you're ready to, but they're buying time you can never get back. And so if you realize what you're selling, it should help you, one, not do things that you don't want to do. Two, it should help you name your price. And three, it should remind you of the stakes, right? What you are spending here, that you are spending something to get paid. As you are working on something, time is working on you. So you can't waste it.

• 4:52Ryan Holiday?

  You can't take it for granted. So you remember what they're paying you for, which is your life. It should change how you think about it. I just watched the sun go down here on the beach. Every time you see the sunset, every time you see the sunrise, you should stop, as the Stoics do, and remind yourself you will never see that again. You'll never see that specific sunrise or specific sunset again. That's part of it. But the other thing is that's one less that you will ever get in your life. The Stoics say it's not that death is in the future, but that we're dying every minute, every day. Every time we see the sunset, every time we get a haircut, every time we watch a few seconds tick on the clock, you have to remind yourself that it's time you will never get back. Time is not just our most precious resource, but it's tick, tick, ticking away. It is non-renewable. So the idea of memento mori for the Stoics

• 5:37Ryan Holiday?

  was that time is fleeting. It is escaping us. It is killing us as we are killing time. Death is there in every sunset, every sunrise. No matter how beautiful, remind yourself of that little bittersweet fact so you never take another one or another minute for granted. It's not that life is short, Seneca says. It's that we waste a lot of it. We waste a lot of it online. We waste a lot of it seeking pleasure or experiences in Las Vegas or whatever the next resort or trendy place in the world is. We wasted chasing things as if we don't Already have everything that we need inside of us. We waste time trying to impress other people. We waste time accumulating things that we don't need, that they're just gonna throw out when we die.

• 6:20Ryan Holiday?

  We waste the most precious resource that we have, which is not money, it's time. Time is the most precious resource. And when you look back on your life, you're not gonna think of that time you got drunk in Las Vegas. You're gonna think of where you made a difference in somebody else's life. You're gonna think about the time that you spent with your family. You're gonna think about moments when you were still not chasing things. Life is short, Seneca says, yes. But it's long if you know how to use it. We are not very good with time. Seneca says, it's not that we don't have enough of it, it's that we waste a whole lot of it. But one of the wonderful things I've found about having kids is that it puts this in perspective. Because I'm not wasting my time. When I'm over committing, I'm not taking time for myself. I'm stealing time for my children.

• 7:05Ryan Holiday?

  I'm stealing time that I promised someone else. I'm stealing time that I will never get back, that I'll never have the opportunity to give again. And so we have to think about time as our most precious resource. Seneca says, death is not in the future. Death is happening right now. We're dying every minute. When we waste it on social media, waste it in pointless meetings. When we waste it going to things that we don't need to go to. We waste it when we're sitting around watching television, even though we have a million other things to do. We waste our time. But we're not just taking that time from ourselves. We're taking it from our children. We're taking it from the important work that only we can do. We're taking it from our spouse. And of course, we are also taking it from ourselves. Stop wasting time. It's your most precious resource.

• 7:49Ryan Holiday?

  And you have to protect it, not just for yourself, but for the people you care about and the people that you don't know how much time you will get with in this life. I hope you like this video. I hope you subscribe. But what I really want you to subscribe to is our Daily Stoic email. One bit of Stoic wisdom, totally for free to the largest community of Stoics ever in existence. You can sign up at dailystoic.com/email. There's no spam. You can unsubscribe at any time. I love sending it. I've sent it every day for the last six years. And I hope to see you there at dailystoic.com/email.