Time management is a hot-button issue among people who are trying to improve their lives. We think that we have to be productive whenever we’re working, studying, or otherwise making use of our waking hours.

This movement is somewhat disturbing to those of us who still cling to a slacker mentality. Do we really need to “manage” our time? Why not just let go and allow things to happen? Sure, you may miss deadlines left and right…and you may never be on time for work or school or parties or meetings…but isn’t this a much more natural way to live life?

So forget everything you’ve ever learned about managing time effectively and embrace your new philosophy of slacking, wasting time, and avoiding every piece of time management advice you’ve ever heard.

1. Forget about setting goals. If you know where you want to go, you’re one step closer to plotting out how to get there. Avoid pinning yourself down with goals and desired outcomes.

2. Work in the noisiest, most distracting place possible. If you have a school paper or work report due, try to do it around other people who don’t know the importance of what you’re working on. Turn on the TV and the radio. You get bonus points if you can read a novel at the same time.

3. Throw out your planner. Have you seen those people walking around with cloth-bound planners that are at least three inches thick? What are those about? If you can’t remember it without writing it down, it’s not worth remembering.

4. Prioritizing is just a fancy way of discriminating. Give everything on your to-do list an equal shot at getting done without deeming any of them more important than the others.

5. Better yet: crumple up that to-do list, throw it out, and forget about the stuff you have to do. It’s probably boring anyway.

6. Procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate. You’ll get very good at creating excuses for being late.

7. Agonize over every little decision. Change your mind at least four times before taking any action.

8. If you don’t have time to fit everything in, just avoid sleeping. You’re not really accomplishing anything while you sleep anyway, are you?