Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and

The teacher of leadership, John C. Maxwell, once spoke a truth that echoes against the walls of eternity: “Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.” This is no idle saying, but a correction to the illusions of mankind. For many believe they can control time, as if the sun would pause in its course or the seasons would wait for them. Yet time is the great river that none can dam, flowing ever forward, indifferent to the cries of men and women.

Hear me, children of wisdom: you cannot master time, but you may master yourself. The ancients knew this well. Did not Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher, write in his meditations that “Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and a violent stream; for as soon as a thing has been seen, it is carried away, and another comes in its place”? To war against time is folly. To bend one’s will against its current is to waste one’s breath. Instead, the wise soul does not seek to halt the current, but to choose well where he sets his boat, and which shores he steers toward.

This is the heart of Maxwell’s teaching: priorities, not time, can be governed. A man who says, “I will manage my hours,” deceives himself, for the hours are already spent by the turning of the earth. But the man who says, “I will govern my choices,” becomes master of his fate. For the measure of life is not in how much time we receive, but in how we fill the vessel of each passing moment.

Consider the example of Abraham Lincoln, who in the crucible of war bore upon himself the weight of a divided nation. He was given no more hours in a day than the humblest farmer, yet by ordering his priorities—first the preservation of the Union, then the abolition of slavery—he carved his mark upon history. If he had sought merely to “manage his time,” his days would have been swallowed by the countless tasks and distractions of war. Instead, he ruled his priorities, and thus his life was given to work of eternal consequence.

Let us then understand: to live without priorities is to be scattered, like seed upon the wind that falls upon stone and thorns. To live with priorities is to plant in good soil, to water what matters most, and to let the lesser things fade away. The clock will always move, but the harvest of our lives is determined not by the ticking hand, but by the focus of our hearts. A man may busy himself all his days and achieve nothing; another may focus on one noble task and achieve greatness.

And so, the lesson is clear: do not squander your life in the vain attempt to stretch time, but instead align your actions with your highest values. Ask yourself each dawn, “What matters most today? What work, if done, will honor my life and strengthen those around me?” In this way, you turn your fleeting hours into treasure.

In practice, I say: set aside the myth of balance and instead pursue clarity. Write down what you value most, and let these become the pillars of your decisions. Cut away what is trivial, though it cries out for your attention, and devote yourself to the essential. Remember that time, once gone, returns no more. Every “yes” you give to the unimportant is a “no” stolen from what truly matters.

Therefore, O seeker, walk wisely in the river of days. You cannot command its flow, but you can command your purpose. Follow the wisdom of John C. Maxwell, and choose not to be a slave to the clock, but a steward of your priorities. For in mastering them, you will master your life, and though your time be finite, your legacy shall be infinite.