This was originally a comment which I put on a Forum discussion about expressing one’s values. As it was tagged onto the end of the discussion I don’t think many people saw it. Here it is, slightly edited.
The ideal time-management system would not only help you to reach your ideals and goals, but would also help you to find out what your ideals and goals are. As Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Imagine for a moment that you found the ideal time management system which banished all resistance and unerringly pointed you to the right thing to be doing at every successive moment in order to achieve your ideals and goals as easily and painlessly as possible. Having found this perfect system, what would you use it for?
You probably wouldn’t use it to watch every series on Netflix while drinking endless six-packs of beer. Or am I being too optimistic?
And ​most of you (I hope) wouldn’t turn into Dr. Evil with dreams of world conquest, shortly to become reality.
My guess is that once you’d started to realise the potential of this amazing system you would try it out on some fairly easy things which you’d always wanted to do, and then, as you gained confidence and experience, you would extend your range while getting a clearer picture of what you were capable of and what you wanted to achieve.
So to me, the sequence is System > Ambitions, rather than Ambitions > System.