Do you wish there were more hours in the day?
I hate to break it to you, but you can’t create more hours in a day. We all get the same number of hours.
You CAN, however, choose how you use those hours, and there are ways to make it feel like you’re magically getting more than 24 hours.
Yes, this involves taking some things out of your day that are currently sucking up a bunch of your time.
Some of these things will be harder to let go of than others.
You probably don’t even realize what you’re spending your time on, which leads me to my first tip.
- Track Your Time.
Before you can find little pockets of time to reclaim throughout your day, you need to know what you’re spending your time on.
The only way to do this is to track everything you do over the course of a day, week, and month. Write down everything task you work on, and how much time you spent on it.
Not only will this help you to understand where your time is going, but you might see an immediate improvement in your productivity as you begin tracking your time.
Why? Because you’re paying closer attention to it how you’re spending it, and you have a goal — to find more time in the day.
- Prioritize and Schedule Your Day.
Another way to gain more time in your day is to prioritize and schedule tasks before jumping right in.
You may have certain times of the day where you feel more productive, or creative, or when your brain just feels like it works better. These are the times of the day when you should be doing your most complex and important work.
Identify which tasks require the most energy, and then schedule them at your most productive times of the day. Then stick to your schedule.
- Delegate Some Tasks.
Sure, you can do everything yourself — until you run out of time (because you will).
No one said you had to do it all yourself to be successful. In fact, if you do, you’ll likely get burnt out mentally and physically, and may give up on your goals altogether.
If instead, you consider which tasks you could delegate to someone else — an employee or a contractor, for example — you may find yourself with all kinds of extra time in your day.
Yes, you’ll have to spend some time training someone to do these tasks and on quality control, but the time you’ll save will be well worth it!
- Take Time To Recharge.
This one is tough for many people. Some people think if they just keep going without any breaks and minimal sleep, they will get more done in a short period of time, and have more time to do more things.
This is the OPPOSITE of true.
You can’t keep going nonstop without a break.
In fact, you may find that you are even more productive after you take some time to go for a walk, meditate, exercise, or sit at a table and eat mindfully (vs. shoving a protein bar in your mouth and calling it “lunch”).
Try one or all of these tips, and I know you’ll see some extra time magically show up in your day!
