Do you ever wish that there was more time? More hours in the day? More days in the week? I do. There is always too much to do. Not enough time. Cram-packed schedule. Everyday. So many of us rush through life. Racing here and there. So busy. Caught up in the “busyness” of life today. Frantic. Stressed. Trying to survive each day. Just hanging on by our fingernails.
I know that feeling. Been there. Done that. I need more time. Don’t you? Time is finite. Everyone gets the same 24 hours. It’s up to you how you will use them. Will you fill up your calendar with back to back appointments? Going all day non-stop? That’s what I did……
Time is a precious commodity. I would say it’s more valuable than money. You can make more money. You can’t make more time. Each day holds the same number of hours. We must learn to use them wisely. How do we do that? The answer lies in your schedule. Try these strategies:
1. Write It Down – Write everything down in your schedule for the week. Don’t leave anything out. Include self-care time (like that 5 min shower), meals, and sleep. Where are you spending all that precious time?
2. Design Your Ideal – Now take a breathe and a blank piece of paper. Write down your ideal schedule for the day (and week). What would you love more time to do?
3. Review and Compare – Take a look at both schedules. Could you give up something? Eliminate. Could someone else do a task that’s on your schedule? Delegate. Are you spending too much time doing certain tasks? Concentrate.
4. Time Suckers – You know what these are and I’m betting you didn’t put them in your schedule. Web surfing, TV, email, social media, video games – how much time are you losing on these???
5. Do What You Love, Get Rid of What You Don’t – To really have more time, you need to be brutal here. Are there things you are doing that you don’t love? Can you give them up? Can you minimize the time you spend doing them?
6. Make Some Breathing Room Create margin in your schedule. If you have an appointment on your calendar, mark out time on either side of that to give yourself buffer. I recommend 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after. If you do nothing else on this list, you NEED TO DO THIS.
One final thought. YOU are in control of YOUR schedule. No one else. You have a choice where you spend your time. I know it feels sometimes that there are things we must do and we have no control of that. But you have so many choices in developing YOUR schedule and creating more TIME. You decide. It’s your life.
Rebecca Sandidge © 2016