One of the greatest difficulties I have found since beginning my quest to try and accomplish so much is finding time. Where do mothers who work, doctors who train for triathlons, and businessmen who run 10 businesses find the time to complete so many tasks within one day, and not go crazy.
Time management is a huge subject in personal development and while I don’t claim to be an expert I would say I am coming into my own on creating time where I thought there was none. I have developed and tried some of my own techniques that may help you out and they may not. You’ll have to use trial and error to see which works best for you but I warn you: you’ll only create more time if you try. Those hoping for a quick fix to making more time for your goals will have to look elsewhere.
Within this post I have a way to create 91 8 hour work days a year just by eliminating 30 minute time wasters here and there. 91 days! That’s a lot of work and a lot of you time available to get goals accomplished.
Why Waste Time Relaxing
Just to clear the air right off the bat, I’m not saying that relaxing is a waste of time, it’s more the how people relax that I can see time being used better. I am unsure how the cultural norm for relaxation became occupying oneself with turning to a vegetative state. Most people, including myself, turn on the TV, lay our heads down, surf the internet, play video games, eat, or stare at the wall and consider that relaxing.
Now I wasn’t around before the advent of television but I can only imagine that prior to TV people didn’t watch flickering boxes or use joysticks to control imaginary people. People might have read, conversed with others, went for a run or walk, learned a new game, learned a new talent. Not sure but I do know there weren’t many sitcoms to keep them busy.
What I am suggesting to you know is to begin by looking at what your “relaxing time” is spent doing. Are you watching TV? Are you just taking a nap? Are you eating when there is no need? List what you do regularly after you wake up and before work, and then once you get home from work. Are you spending a lot of time in front of the television or the computer screen? Sickening isn’t it.
A while back I sat down and looked at the things I was doing to “relax” and found that I could be saving a lot of time and learning a lot of new things, exercise, you name it, just by eliminating some of the useless tasks I was doing.
Wake UP!
Simple yet to the point. Wake up early in the morning. I am not much of a morning person at all but I have figured out a way to create 30 more minutes a day just by waking up early. Now 30 minutes may not seem like a lot, or may not amount to much just by itself but consider this. If you wake up every morning 30 minutes earlier than you currently do you’ll be giving yourself 3 and a half hours a week extra time. That’s 14 hours of extra time a month and with 52 weeks in a year that’s 182 hours a year! That gives you a lot of extra time.
How do you wake up early? Well that’s a matter of personal preference. Some put the alarm in the bathroom so they have to get out of bed, some set multiple alarms. One thing that I’ve found works great is not thinking about having to go to work but thinking about what you are going to do for yourself for 30 minutes. You’ll be more motivated to get up right away rather than pushing the snooze button.
Think about that blogging you’re going to do, that run you’re going to get yourself fit with, that great meal you’re about to prepare, or that correspondence you’re going to catch up on. Whatever it is, think of it as your time and you’ll be more apt and more excited to get up in the morning and start your day a little earlier.
If all else fails throw your alarm in the bathroom and don’t push the snooze. (or get a rooster :))
LESS TV
Watch less TV. It’s simple, think about a 30 minute sitcom that you have a 1 in 3 chance of what you’re about to watch being a re-run and don’t watch it. Sure it’s entertaining, sure you’re relaxing, but why do you have to relax and unwind in front of the television. Couldn’t you be going for a walk or sitting under a tree in the shade reading a book?
Really just sit down and think about what you’re watching. Most people in America come home after work and sit in front of the TV and watch re-runs, Friends, Seinfeld, The Simpson’s, That 70’s Show. Then at night before going to bed it’s the same thing. Maybe through in some Everybody Loves Raymond, and King of Queens and that adds up to 2 or 3 hours of useless television. I say useless because as I said there probably a 30% maybe even more like a 50% with some shows, chance that you’ve seen it already.
Even watching just 1 less show gives you 30 more minutes a day to do what you will with that time. Add that to the 30 minutes we created from waking up a little earlier that gives you 7 hours more a week. That’s 364 hours a year extra. You have now just created 45.5 8 hour work days that can do with whatever you want.
One way good way that I’ve eliminated a lot of TV watching and free’d up some time for myself is to purchase a Tivo. Yup that’s right, I joined the digital revolution and nixed the VCR, which I was never patient enough to set-up. This has allowed me to come home an hour later, still watch all my favorite TV shows, and still finish at the same time I would if I had made it home on time to watch those same shows.
Yes, I could just not watch TV, but how would I stay up to date on what’s going on in the hatch.
I am not sure how much time watching 2 hours worth of TV via Tivo saves but lets consider that there are about 7-12 minutes per half hour of commercials and we have 28 minutes per 2 hours giving us basically another 30 minutes per day, giving us another 182 hours a year which adds up to 546 hours per year with the other hour a day we saved cutting out one re-run sitcom and waking up 30 minutes earlier. That’s 68.25 eight hour work days we just created from 3 activities that don’t take any more time.
(By the way look how you saved 1 hour a day just from TV)
Eat Lunch At Your Desk
For those of you that work a full-time job and are so lucky to be trapped in a cubicle all day long, don’t fear, there are ways you can create time for yourself at work. It may take some self control or a little realization that you don’t need to veg out, spend an hour chatting with friends about what Vanessa said to Joan about your boss, but there are ways you can make a little time for number one without getting in trouble with the man in charge.
As I said, to do this you will need self control but if you pack your lunch already you’re half way there. If you don’t, then start packing your lunch. In some places and depending upon what you eat you may not save much money packing a lunch but you save and even more valuable asset. Your time. By packing a lunch you eliminate the walk to the lunch shop/wagon, the wait for your food, and the walk back. Right there that’s probably 15 to 20 minutes. Maybe even more depending on where you eat. Add to that the time you might spend talking with co-workers about gossip and such and you have another 30 minutes.
This is of course if you allow yourself 1 hour lunches which I realize some people only have 30 minutes to eat lunch in which case you probably already bring your lunch or don’t have time to leave work to eat. In any event, if your particular work situation allows you the above scenario, presto 30 more minutes a day, another 182 hours a year, bringing our grand total to 728 hours for the year and 91 eight hour work days. That’s a lot of work days.
Make the Most of Your Time
I bet I know what you’re saying “but that’s 30 minutes here and 30 minutes there, what can I do in 30 minutes?” Well 30 minutes is a lot of time and I’m going to give you plenty of things you can do in 30 minutes.
For starters take the time you wake up in the morning. 30 minutes, not a lot of time right. Wrong. If you don’t eat breakfast that 30 minutes is a good time to start eating a healthy first meal. It gets your metabolism started and really gets your day off to a good start. I wasn’t much of a breakfast eater prior to getting up earlier and wasn’t much of a morning person either. Once I started having a good bite to eat when I woke up I started feeling a little perkier and liking the mornings a little more. That allowed me to be more productive at work and a little more cheerful with the people around me.
Let’s say you already eat breakfast. Great! You now have 30 minutes to do what you will with. I try the following if I get a little more time: running - a 30 minute run can go a long way, write some emails or pay some bills - catching up on email is something I know all people need to do, read a book or newspaper, learn an instrument - 30 minutes on the guitar everyday and you’ll be jamming with Dave in no time, lift weights - 30 minutes non-stop is great cardio and strength conditioning.
Now let’s move onto lunch time. It really depends on where you work and what you have access to that will enable you to maximize your time. I try and read a bit at lunch. Not work related reading, personal reading, a financial book, a personal development book, a Dan Brown novel, whatever you can manage in bits and pieces.
I am lucky enough to work a block from the ocean and can swim or surf during lunch and still get in a few minutes of lunch to eat whatever I packed. That’s allows me to complete some of the goals I set for myself which is a big part of why I search for extra time. You can again always write email, call some friends or family members or learn something new.
Finally onto after work TV watching. Let’s say you eliminate one of the re-run sit-coms you watch after work, and then you Tivo the two hours of must see TV that you watch that can give you 1 hour of straight through time. This way, you’re not having 30 minutes here and there your getting a whole hour to spend doing the things you love.
With 1 hour you can go for a long run, a long bike ride, a long walk, a long swim, play tennis, garden, write all those thank you cards you’ve always wanted, learn an instrument, learn a new game, learn a language, read a book. There are tons of things you can do in an hour and that’s a great way you can combine those meaningless 30 minutes time savers into a full a hour of time saving wonderfulness.
Making Time
In conclusion you should realize that getting 728 hours of extra time doesn’t just fall into your lap. You need to work at it and make it happen. Getting up in the morning is tough, you need to find a way to make that extra time yours. This will motivate you to get up in the morning rather than thinking, not another day for work. You’ll be wanting to get up and might even make more time by getting up even earlier.
Another tough thing to do is break old habits. Old habits like waking up 5 minutes before you’re supposed to leave, or talking to friends during a long lunch break, or even watching your favorite sit-com re-run can be a tough habit to break. It will take self control and some extra time.
The best thing you can do is to remember that what your creating is your time. Your time to accomplish all those things you’ve always wanted to accomplish, all those goals you’ve set for yourself. That language you want to learn those books you’ve wanted to read. The time is yours just get creating it!
