3 Easy Ways To Create More Time
When I was a kid, time seemed to go in slow motion. The 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas felt like 4 years. Celebrating the 2 week anniversary of my relationship with my middle school boyfriend made perfect sense. We were clearly committed with that much time in after all. And telling my mother that I was bored because I had nothing to do for hours seemed perfectly reasonable. I was swimming in time and didn’t have the wherewithal to appreciate it.
Then I grew up and quickly began to feel like I was trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents when it came to time. I always had more tasks to complete than the time I had to achieve them, and I always felt like I was running behind.
I thought that my success hinged on my ability to get more things done. So I slept less, read books and blog posts on time management and productivity, and set out to accomplish more. It worked. I got more done. I also became extremely anxious and drove myself a little batty.
Because I was always efficiently doing, I was never fully present for anything. Instead, I was either multi-tasking or running my to-do list over and over in my head so I wouldn’t forget something. It was exhausting.
To get off the treadmill, I had to learn that healthy productive (the kind that doesn’t drive you to hyperventilate in brown paper bags) isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing less and creating more time and space to do your best work.
So how can you create more time? Here are 3 easy methods that actually work.
#1 Write It All Down
As David Allen says, “the mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” Yet almost all of us keep our to-do lists in our heads. Ultimately this practice leads to less focus and less productivity. Instead, we need a place where we can empty our cup, and we do this by writing down all of our to-dos.
The goal of writing everything down is to put your to-do list away in a safe place. That way, you don’t have to think about those tasks until it’s actually time to complete them. This relieves the anxiety that you’ll forget something while allowing space to focus on the present moment.
I use bullet journaling for writing down my to-dos. It’s a pen and paper system to store to-do lists, calendars, plans, and ideas in an organized way all in one place. You can learn the ins and out of the system here.
#2 Eliminate the “Should Dos” and Prioritize the Important
Once you have your to-do list written down, the next way to create more time is to eliminate the should dos and prioritize the important over the urgent.
Inevitably there are things that we feel we should do on everyone’s to-do list. We should lose 5 pounds. We should run in that charity 5K on Saturday. We’re should-ing all over the place.
However, if we are doing something just because we think we should and not because we want to or because it supports our values, those tasks are going to take more energy than they are worth.
If the reason something is on your list is that you should do it, cut it. That doesn’t mean it can’t get done. It just means that it won’t be done by you. Instead, find ways to automate or delegate it. There are apps to do just about everything, and you can hire people on Task Rabbit or Fiverr to handle the rest.
Once you’ve eliminated the should dos, it’s time to prioritize the rest of your list. The rule of thumb here is to do what’s important before what’s urgent. So everyday reorganize your list to put your most important items at the top. Important tasks are the ones that matter to your personal and business growth the most. Urgent issues are usually tied to someone else’s agenda.
#3 Schedule Blocks of Time
Desmond Tutu once said, “there’s only one way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.” What he meant is that the only way to conquer daunting challenges in life is to handle them bit-by-bit. This includes the important tasks on our to-do lists.
Often the items we deem “important” on our lists are challenging creatively, spiritually, or physically. They always take more time than we originally intended, and because they are challenging, we are tempted to skip them to handle urgent matters that require less brain power. This is a mistake because it’s the important tasks that bring us closer to our goals and our version of success.
Rather than setting unrealistic expectations about when important tasks should be done, schedule on-going blocks of time to work on them bit-by-bit. By creating the habits of working on these matters during the same blocks of time each week, you’ll start to see more progress than if you tried to eat the elephant all at once and failed. You’ll also feel more in control of your time instead of feeling like you are behind on some imaginary deadline.
Do you have more tips on how to create time? I’d love to hear them. Comment below and let me know how you handle your to-do list and schedule your time.