So you’ve decided that you want to be fitter, richer, or more zen? You’ve made a commitment to learn Polish, basket weaving, coding or fish whispering. Whatever it is, we also need to make a time commmitment otherwise your goal is only a wish!
However, that doesn’t happen by accident. The time gods don’t just bestow 2-3 more hours a week in an already packed schedule. We have to create more time on purpose. We must design our days more effectively and almost certainly give some activities up.
Here, we are going to look at some tips for creating a few spare hours every week to crush any goal to learn applied fluid mechanics!
1. Yes always means no!
When you say yes to any activity, you are also saying no! Agree to go out with your mates to the pub? You are saying ’no’ to working on your woodworking skills. Say ’yes’ to watching a film? You are saying ’no’ to writing the next chapter of your fan fiction where Dr Who meets Zebidee in an alternate universe. Say ’yes’ to that boys’ weekend in Rhyll? You are saying’no’ to spending quantity time with the family.
This is not to say that you can become a total productivity machine as everyone needs some downtime for R&R! But know that whatever you say yes to has an opportunity cost. Make balanced decisions with your time.
2. Switch off the T.V.
Foregoing your dedicated 30 minutes of a fave daily soap gives you 2 ½ hours a week. Saying no to watching a film or two and you have 3-4 hours of free time to invest in reaching your goal.
If you find yourself flicking through the channels to find the least-worst programme on the ’Bargain DIY Chalets under the Hammer S.O.S.’ Channel, you may want to reassess your time management skills!
If you hear the words…
“And coming up later, we speak to the man who says his wife gave birth to a hedgehog. And after that Jemima tells us how we can get those bright eyes and a glossy coat with 5 unusual ingredients found at the back of your shed! But first, we find out how to tell if your pot plant is planning to kill you…”
…it’s a sure sign you can reach for that big red button and use your time more usefully!
3. Delegate some of your chores
Asking othersfrom your support network to take on one or two jobs that are filling your to-do list could be a way to solve your time drought. Even having someone just taking over the laundry, the washing up or the gardening can save you a good couple of hours a week. Even if you have to ’up’ your kids’ pocket money it will be worth it to work on the killer business idea you have.
4. Outsource some jobs around the house.
Employ a cleaner for 2 hours a week to take the time burden off you. Not only do you get those sparkly surfaces from a cleaning cemmercial but it frees up your mental space to spend your time on asset producing activities. You can outsource pretty much anything these days – gardening, ironing, washing, taxes, the list goes on and on. You can even employ the services of a virtual assistant to do research, find you the perfect presents for loved ones or write articles for your blog.
5. Batch tasks
Batching just means doing an activity that your repeat regularly and doing it all at once. A good example of this would be batch cooking. If you cook from scratch every evening, you probably spend at least half an hour each evening on chopping, grating and stirring. But if you think about how long it takes you to get the equipment out, washing up and preparing,all those little tasks add up.
The answer: batch cooking.
On a Sunday, you can cook everytning for the week, all at once. Cook 4-6 family meals and keep them in the fridge or freezer, so it takes you minutes to heat up or defrost during the evening.
There are several fab foodie books specifically catering for the batch cooking market which give you some delicious ideas for keeping the variety in your meal plans.
However, this isn’t just for budding chefs. Batching tasks is an excellent way to save time in so many other facets of your life. Grouping similar tasks together saves you having to make the mental jump between tasks and a side benefit is that you have all the materials, information and resources you need all ready to go.
Finances, cleaning, dealing with emails, writing, research etc. Can all be batched. One example: can you go to the card shop and buy everybody’s brithday cards all at once at the start of January? Or what about reconciling your direct debits whilst also planning your next month’s budget? With a bit of creativity, you can make yourself into a complete and utter batcher!
6. Gat up half an hour earlier.
We all know the feeling when we the alarm goes off and we fumble for the snooze button (four times). However, with a good night’s sleep and healthy energy levels, many productivity gurus extol the virtues of an early morning. After all, remember that old adage of the early bird needs an expresso martini by 3pm?
30 minutes is a perfect amount of time to put your alarm forward as it allows you to get a good amount done, but probably won’t fill you little old heart wiith dread the night before. And who knows, you may find that you can slwoly edge this forward even earlier.
7. Work through your lunch
If you are lucky enough to have a lunch break, is there anyway you can work through it? Either spend half an hour getting on top of your work, or use some of your downtime to work on your own projects. Look at the Lunchtime Trader – he has built his whole business aorund working while you eat!
8. Use your commute
No matter how you get to work, using the journey creatively to multitask is an excellent use of time. Listen to langauge CDs, podcasts or audiobooks can bring extra value to your life. If you communte by bus, train or taxi, you can use more engaging apps like Duolingo to crush those tricky Serbian verb forms.
9. Change your environment
This takes a little more dedication and commitment (both time and financial) but can allow you to reap rewards in the future. For example, if you really resent gardening or mowing the lawn, replace the lawn with artificial grass, or design a much more low-maintenance garden to save you time. And you don’t have to turn your heavenly outdoor space in to a municiple car-park to achieve this.
10. Online shopping
The whole rigmarole of going to the supermarket, trudging round the packed aisles, queing for the checkouts and packing it all up can take a surprisingly long time. Swap to online shopping. The benefits: you can save your online ’shopping list’ which saves you time getting the basics, and you can easily add whatever additional items you need quickly and easily. Then press send, sit back and wait for your shopping to arrive, ready packed, at your at your doorstep.
11. Make the most important thing, the most important thing.
Prioritising your activities effectively is the difference between being busy and being effective. We often let distractions, that don’t really make a difference to you life, get in the way of tasks that could move us forward more quickly towards our hopes and dreams.
12. Plan your day the previous evening.
Having a plan, with effectively scheduling tasks and sticking to it, can be an excellent way to reduce down time and stay focused. Just don’t forget to leave some leeway for unexpected events that might derail your well-laid plans.
13. Avoid multitasking
Psychologists have found that multitasking, while seeming an efficient use of time, is actually detrimental to your focus. Stopping tasks and refocusing can take time and trying to complete two different tasks at the same time can result in niether task being cmpleted to a high standard.
The only time to ustilise multitasking is when you are performing an activity that is fairly mindless (washing up, hoovering, gardening etc.) when you can use that time for learning.
14. Do a time log.
Using your time better starts with knowing what activities you already fill your time with. Keep a record of your daily activities in a spreadsheet or notebook. Then assess where you can make efficiecy savings. Do you spend an hour trying to phone your energy provider, when you could get a quick answer using online chat tools? Or do you find that you are spending several hours a week ferrying the kids to their various acitivities? Subscibe to a few interesting podcasts and learn on the go!
So you should now have some tricks to carve out some time for yourself to reach your goals. Which one of these tips can you apply to your life? Which will be scheduled in among your ’Next Few Steps’.
What is the one main thing that gets in your way when starting a new project? Share your time-saving hacks with us below!