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It's About Time: The Art of Choosing the Meaningful Over the Urgent
Discover the eternal value of your finite time—and intentionally choose the meaningful over the urgent every single day. Our culture makes it so that even the most organized and efficient among us feels the pressure of the ticking clock and the possibility and regret of missing out. Modern life has evolved in a way that sets us up for stress, pressure, and overload. New norms and attitudes tap into deeply-wired psychological impulses that make it harder than ever to take control of your time. Many of us also have innate personality traits that make the struggle even worse. No wonder time can become a tyrant that leaves us chronically stressed and discontented. Unlock an approach to life that bestselling author Valorie Burton calls “living timelessly.” You will come to understand 1) the gradual changes that have led us to a place where having too much to do and too little time to do it is the norm, 2) the vision for what it could look like if you were free from the stress of time and how to blast through the obstacles to those possibilities, and 3) the practical steps to choosing the meaningful over the urgent so that your life is unhurried yet purposeful and reflects the values and impact that are unique to you. It’s About Time helps you reimagine a life that is meaningful, at a pace that is natural, with a load that is doable and equips you with the tools to make it happen.
272 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2019
95 people are currently reading
1225 people want to read
About the author
Valorie Burton
45 books276 followersI am a bestselling author, speaker, and life coach dedicated to helping people like you get unstuck and be unstoppable in every area of life.
I founded The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute and have served as a Certified Personal and Executive Coach to hundreds of clients in over 40 states and ten countries.
For more than a decade, I have had the pleasure of writing, speaking, and coaching in order to help people like you:
- Make major life changes
- Be happier and have more fun
- Become strong leaders
- Achieve professional dreams
- Navigate setbacks
- Speak up with confidence
- Feel at peace with decisions
- Conquer emotions that can cause self-sabotage
Let me help you get unstuck and be unstoppable!
Feel free to add me as a friend, rate or review one of my books, take one of my quizzes, or visit my website to learn more.
I founded The Coaching and Positive Psychology (CaPP) Institute and have served as a Certified Personal and Executive Coach to hundreds of clients in over 40 states and ten countries.
For more than a decade, I have had the pleasure of writing, speaking, and coaching in order to help people like you:
- Make major life changes
- Be happier and have more fun
- Become strong leaders
- Achieve professional dreams
- Navigate setbacks
- Speak up with confidence
- Feel at peace with decisions
- Conquer emotions that can cause self-sabotage
Let me help you get unstuck and be unstoppable!
Feel free to add me as a friend, rate or review one of my books, take one of my quizzes, or visit my website to learn more.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 22, 2019
“I’ve always seemed to think I can get more done in a day than I can, leaving me with the feeling that I’ve never done enough…Not to mention, my struggle with perfectionism has meant it’s never quite the right time to get started anyway...Our culture makes it so that even the most organized and efficient among us feels the pressure of the ticking clock and the possibility and regret of missing out.”
Many of us live in a state of time poverty, where the things we need to do are greater than the time we have to do them, which causes stress and other issues. Pretty much everything in life feels urgent. Gotta get to the bank before they close. Gotta grab that giant container of paper towels while it’s on sale. But, the focus is frequently on stuff, which in the big scheme of things, aren’t important, while we push the meaningful things, such as spending time with our loved ones, off. The book helps prioritize the meaningful over false urgencies to assure that the limited time we are all given is well spent.
Burton includes activities, quizzes, action plans, and “meaningful moments” at the ends of chapters to help the reader apply her principles to their lives. She looks to the past to see how our lives evolved into a time urgency nightmare. She suggests making peace with lost time through forgiveness, self-compassion and gratitude, while preventing future lost time through reflection, intention, and planning. She addresses procrastination, perfectionism, distraction, people-pleasing, extending deadlines, and not asking for help.
She introduces a cool concept called tidsoptimism or time optimism: the act of underestimating the time something takes, for example, the time it takes to complete a task, and provides tools to combat it. Along with tidsoptimism, she cites five other core vulnerabilities, including perfectionism, over-achieving, over-responsibility, approval addiction, and misplaced guilt. She shows how each has positive and negative characteristics and suggests strategies to decrease their negative impact.
IT’S ABOUT TIME has given me a new perspective regarding how I spend my time. I’m striving to put more effort into the meaningful. I found reading this book to be an excellent use of my time.
Many of us live in a state of time poverty, where the things we need to do are greater than the time we have to do them, which causes stress and other issues. Pretty much everything in life feels urgent. Gotta get to the bank before they close. Gotta grab that giant container of paper towels while it’s on sale. But, the focus is frequently on stuff, which in the big scheme of things, aren’t important, while we push the meaningful things, such as spending time with our loved ones, off. The book helps prioritize the meaningful over false urgencies to assure that the limited time we are all given is well spent.
Burton includes activities, quizzes, action plans, and “meaningful moments” at the ends of chapters to help the reader apply her principles to their lives. She looks to the past to see how our lives evolved into a time urgency nightmare. She suggests making peace with lost time through forgiveness, self-compassion and gratitude, while preventing future lost time through reflection, intention, and planning. She addresses procrastination, perfectionism, distraction, people-pleasing, extending deadlines, and not asking for help.
She introduces a cool concept called tidsoptimism or time optimism: the act of underestimating the time something takes, for example, the time it takes to complete a task, and provides tools to combat it. Along with tidsoptimism, she cites five other core vulnerabilities, including perfectionism, over-achieving, over-responsibility, approval addiction, and misplaced guilt. She shows how each has positive and negative characteristics and suggests strategies to decrease their negative impact.
IT’S ABOUT TIME has given me a new perspective regarding how I spend my time. I’m striving to put more effort into the meaningful. I found reading this book to be an excellent use of my time.
June 16, 2021
This book not only gave me the tools to live my life in a more purposeful and intention driven way, but also gave me insight into how we got to a point where busyness is a status symbol, we’re able to get anything almost instantly, and overwork and overload are the norm. I was pleasantly surprised by the chapters that gave a historical perspective on the advancement of technology. All-around well written book!
April 24, 2019
Wake up. Work. Cook. Clean. Sleep. Repeat.
Today’s culture of constant “go, go, go” to get things done within some time limit makes us lose sight of what really matter in our lives. We do not have time to slow down and ponder what is our life’s purpose. Instead, we wake up each day going to the grind and coming home to finish our personal errands only to repeat the same thing next day. In our societal culture, “we dread mondays, prepare to get over hump days and live for the weekend.”
After years of hustling and bustling, and not being happy, I often questioned what is the meaning of life. I found myself busy all the time, planning my days and months in advance and I didn’t know what I had really accomplished in the grand scheme of life. Sure, I got a college degree and had a reputable job, but, it made me miserable. Social media made it worse as I often found myself comparing my life to others that I could not keep up with. I was easily depressed.
We, as a society, have done this to ourselves. We have made our lives so full of stress and we don’t know how to get out of it. Everyday is structured and has a schedule. We are always busy and are constantly racing against time as we never have enough of it. Burton does a great job showing us in detail how this came about in our society and reminds us that we don’t need to succumb to the norm. She reminds us that we have control over our lives and teaches us how to choose what’s truly meaningful.
Everyone will benefit from reading this book because it helps us see what truly matters. I believe that the more people who reads this and makes changes, the more our society will change for the better. If you think you don’t need it, I challenge you to ask yourself, “What’s the point of everything I’m doing now?” and truly consider all the little things.
Today’s culture of constant “go, go, go” to get things done within some time limit makes us lose sight of what really matter in our lives. We do not have time to slow down and ponder what is our life’s purpose. Instead, we wake up each day going to the grind and coming home to finish our personal errands only to repeat the same thing next day. In our societal culture, “we dread mondays, prepare to get over hump days and live for the weekend.”
After years of hustling and bustling, and not being happy, I often questioned what is the meaning of life. I found myself busy all the time, planning my days and months in advance and I didn’t know what I had really accomplished in the grand scheme of life. Sure, I got a college degree and had a reputable job, but, it made me miserable. Social media made it worse as I often found myself comparing my life to others that I could not keep up with. I was easily depressed.
We, as a society, have done this to ourselves. We have made our lives so full of stress and we don’t know how to get out of it. Everyday is structured and has a schedule. We are always busy and are constantly racing against time as we never have enough of it. Burton does a great job showing us in detail how this came about in our society and reminds us that we don’t need to succumb to the norm. She reminds us that we have control over our lives and teaches us how to choose what’s truly meaningful.
Everyone will benefit from reading this book because it helps us see what truly matters. I believe that the more people who reads this and makes changes, the more our society will change for the better. If you think you don’t need it, I challenge you to ask yourself, “What’s the point of everything I’m doing now?” and truly consider all the little things.
April 20, 2019
I received a complimentary copy.
I have always been really good about time management, but there are some days in my older years when I can never find enough time. As a single mom raising kids with no outside help at all it can be stressing to the max and when you add homeschool, college and teen driving it can be downright overwhelming.
I also have to factor in trying to constantly find enough work just to keep the house afloat with my single income. Did mention most of the kids have special needs? Lastly the pets that I have rescued all constantly have needs that I meet.
I refuse to be held back and a book like this inspires, gives a bit of light in the way of a dark few moments and help to rebuild sanity. Now as for me most of my problems can be solved with money, others might need so much more. I always put my family first. I hope you have enough time to read this book because it will bring much more than a few pages of someone giving you what they think you need.
I have always been really good about time management, but there are some days in my older years when I can never find enough time. As a single mom raising kids with no outside help at all it can be stressing to the max and when you add homeschool, college and teen driving it can be downright overwhelming.
I also have to factor in trying to constantly find enough work just to keep the house afloat with my single income. Did mention most of the kids have special needs? Lastly the pets that I have rescued all constantly have needs that I meet.
I refuse to be held back and a book like this inspires, gives a bit of light in the way of a dark few moments and help to rebuild sanity. Now as for me most of my problems can be solved with money, others might need so much more. I always put my family first. I hope you have enough time to read this book because it will bring much more than a few pages of someone giving you what they think you need.
May 1, 2019
From the very start of the book each chapter is full of meaningful content. We are led through the process of understanding where we are spending our time, determining if the time expenditure is on things and people that align with what’s most valuable/meaningful to us and realigning our life’s activities to bring about what’s most important to us. So I am learning how to identify the meaningful and choosing to spend time only on those things. I am loving this book!!!
May 13, 2020
I listened to this as an audio book during the COVID crisis. I appreciate her concepts of time poverty, time debt, and philosophy of meaningful over urgent. She gives many poignant examples about the importance of setting priorities and budgeting time accordingly. 4 not 5 because some of it feels redundant and obvious, but overall a helpful guide to rethinking the treasure of time. Also excited to use her guides from her website!
June 29, 2019
Review of It’s About Time: The Art of Choosing the Meaningful Over the Urgent, by Valorie Burton
When I saw the title of this book, I thought it would be a rehash of a little booklet I read decades ago called Tyranny of the Urgent. Some of the principles may be the same, but Burton brings everything into present-day context. She examines some issues that weren’t even dreamed of in the 1960s when Tyranny of the Urgent was written.
Burton is a busy wife, mom, speaker, and author with a background in psychology and motivation. With all that going on, she certainly needs to be able to master her time!
Writing from a Christian perspective, Burton uses personal stories from her family as well as examples from the lives of friends to illustrate her points. Burton introduces the idea of thinking about time in the same terms we use to think about and discuss money. We can be in time debt, be time poor, and even build time wealth.
For those who want to get the most out of this book and start to apply Burton’s lessons, she gives meaningful assignments and exercises to help you realize how you are spending your time and discover the motivation for the choices you are making.
Burton’s writing is clear and the book is well organized. It’s About Time offers a significant value in a small package. Is it time to reorder your priorities?
When I saw the title of this book, I thought it would be a rehash of a little booklet I read decades ago called Tyranny of the Urgent. Some of the principles may be the same, but Burton brings everything into present-day context. She examines some issues that weren’t even dreamed of in the 1960s when Tyranny of the Urgent was written.
Burton is a busy wife, mom, speaker, and author with a background in psychology and motivation. With all that going on, she certainly needs to be able to master her time!
Writing from a Christian perspective, Burton uses personal stories from her family as well as examples from the lives of friends to illustrate her points. Burton introduces the idea of thinking about time in the same terms we use to think about and discuss money. We can be in time debt, be time poor, and even build time wealth.
For those who want to get the most out of this book and start to apply Burton’s lessons, she gives meaningful assignments and exercises to help you realize how you are spending your time and discover the motivation for the choices you are making.
Burton’s writing is clear and the book is well organized. It’s About Time offers a significant value in a small package. Is it time to reorder your priorities?
October 2, 2019
I am so glad I bought this book. The concept of time is broken down. Some of the concepts were things I already knew, but the examples and the break down of them were refreshing and needed.
Your time budget is a great way to see where the time goes and specify what you can do to change. And it's not all about quitting social media or watching TV but slightly restructuring how we can reshape it to keep us out of time debt. I have already rec this book to others. If you are on the Holy Bible App, you can get a preview of some of the content from her short video devotions. That is what drove me to get this book, and I am glad that I did. Likely will make my favorite book of 2019 list!
Your time budget is a great way to see where the time goes and specify what you can do to change. And it's not all about quitting social media or watching TV but slightly restructuring how we can reshape it to keep us out of time debt. I have already rec this book to others. If you are on the Holy Bible App, you can get a preview of some of the content from her short video devotions. That is what drove me to get this book, and I am glad that I did. Likely will make my favorite book of 2019 list!
January 24, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. It made me feel better about my situation, like I’m not alone. It broke down how as a society we have begun to prioritize less important things in our lives just to “keep up” for appearance and to please other people. Then it gave a lot of practical advice on how to audit your time, identity time wasters, mindsets that feed into those things, and how to replace it with more meaningful things. Now that I’ve read through I’m going to spend the rest of the year implementing some of the things I learned.
October 16, 2023
Make time for this one!
This is a quick read filled with easy-to-apply advice. It's mostly about having an honest self-assessment of time, boundaries, commitments, and what we truly value. I was able to quickly pin-point some of my biggest timestealers and reallocate resources by making a few simple changes.
This is a quick read filled with easy-to-apply advice. It's mostly about having an honest self-assessment of time, boundaries, commitments, and what we truly value. I was able to quickly pin-point some of my biggest timestealers and reallocate resources by making a few simple changes.
October 24, 2019
Time is a commodity that is certainly as precious as money. If you find yourself time deprived, then I recommend this book by Valarie Burton. Ms. Burton gives you strategies that help you choose meaningful over "busyness."
This review is my own but I was fortunate to receive an ARC
This review is my own but I was fortunate to receive an ARC
December 26, 2019
One of my favorite books this year. If you want thought provoking insight into how you’re spending your time and how to make sure you make more meaningful time choices/commitments, this is the book for you.
January 21, 2020
An excellent book for helping manage and prioritize your time. There are a number of exercises to help you identify your time issues and experiments to help fix them. It's full of examples and tools; such as daily, weekly and monthly time budget sheets.
December 23, 2020
This is the second book read by this author. I mindlessly pick it up and am so happy for it. This is just what I needed, as I was reviewing my current year and anticipating the upcoming year. The social media history told was right on target!
July 22, 2022
This was a good book about time and explaining how to figure out what is meaningful to me ..but all in all, I don't feel it helped me personally with making better use of my time and choosing what is more meaningful. I do feel it could be helpful to others finding the meaningful over the urgent.
May 11, 2025
Loved this book! I want to look into getting Valarie as a coach! I was fortunate enough to hear her speak at an event and think both the book and her ability to inspire and coach are truly impressive.
January 8, 2021
Loved so many things about this book. It's got me thinking of where I spend my time and making the changes I want for the life I want.
November 28, 2021
Lots of great information about time and the bandits therein. I walked away feeling good about how I spend my time. Hopefully, you will find some great nuggets too.
August 2, 2023
totally made me rethink the way i spend my time.
February 4, 2024
It’s About Time I discovered Valorie Burton
February 24, 2025
Excellent read!
August 10, 2025
3.5 star. Overall it was a good book to learn more what takes all my time and how to be more deliberate in how I spend my time and what my priorities are.
May 7, 2019
When I first heard about Valorie's new book, I knew I would buy it because I love her style of writing. However, I didn't think the topic was that relevant to me as I thought I was already an expert with managing my time. After reading the first couple chapters, I realized that I was dead wrong! This book has opened my eyes to the fact that I was not the time expert I thought I was! As a matter of fact, it showed me that I needed to drastically change my approach to my relationship with time. I found the exercises and coaching questions included in the chapters to be extremely helpful. For example, I did not know the extent of my social media use until I did the Daily Time Chart exercise. The Core Vulnerabilities and Positive Pessimist Assessments were also eye opening. I've incorporated what I've learned from these assessments as well as the book on a whole successfully into my daily life and I am beginning to see improvement in my relationship with time. The book is a very easy and interesting read with life experiences of others who are easy to relate to. Another great book from Valorie Burton! Hats off to her.
April 27, 2025
On 1/3 way through I thought "it's about time" I gave up on that pointless book. And I don't give up on many books. The author is writing "yet another book because I'm a writer and I have it on my schedule" with absolutely nothing new, just recycling ideas heard from other sources and adding some color with her own life. I guess there is an audience for that, but not me.
One good note from the book: EVEN if You have all your favourite cakes - when forced to eat them super fast with a stopwatch, then you won’t appreciate the moment nor the cakes. So it’s not about what You have, but rather if You have the time/peace in Your life to enjoy them.
One good note from the book: EVEN if You have all your favourite cakes - when forced to eat them super fast with a stopwatch, then you won’t appreciate the moment nor the cakes. So it’s not about what You have, but rather if You have the time/peace in Your life to enjoy them.
June 13, 2019
Good overview of how to set priorities and make life more than a matter of checking off to-do lists. The chapter on "Making Peace With Lost Time" was especially helpful and should be read by anyone experiencing symptoms of mid-life crisis.
July 19, 2019
This is good for those that have issues with managing the important things in life
February 11, 2020
It was a good read.
August 25, 2019
As always I'm never disappointed. Great book with very interesting history of time from past to present. Great study.
November 1, 2020
This is now one of my favorite time management books. I am going to read this again. It is a must read!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews