Do you always seem strapped for time?
Do feel that you can never fit everything you want to do in a day?
Does your confidence take a beating because you feel overwhelmed?
If so, then this information is for you!
Having more time is one of the most precious and sought after resources we have. When you feel in control over your time you have more confidence. Everyone has the same amount of time. However, some have more than others!
When you think about it – what is time? In it’s basic form it is that part of existence which is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.
Everyone has the same amount of time to do their "stuff". Yet the real winners in life are those who know what they have to do and when. They also don’t get stressed out about things that happen which have an affect on the amount of time between tasks.
So, how can you get more time?
The approach:
The first thing you should do is perform a self assessment on how you are currently spending your time.
Complete a diary for 1 typical week. Write down how you are spending your time.
It could look a little like this:
Time | Task |
08:00 | Got out of bed |
08:30 | Left for work no breakfast |
09:00 | Got to work, had coffee – chatted to colleagues |
09:30 | Started reading emails |
10:30 | Meeting |
11:45 | Emails |
1:00 | Lunch |
2:00 | Meeting |
3:30 | Coffee break – chat |
4:00 | General Admin |
5:00 | Left for home |
6:30 | Arrived home – changed, coffee, put dinner on – watched TV |
7:30 | Dinner |
8:00 | Watched TV |
11:00 | Went to bed |
This could be a typical day.
You may feel as though there were not enough hours in the day and also feel uncomfortable being under pressure with time.
After a weeks worth (5 working days) of time data, total all of the hours spent on the various tasks and put them into one master table under specific headings.
An example of this is below:
Activity | Hours spent |
Sleep | 47 hours |
Travelling to work | 3 hours |
Arrive at work/coffee/chat | 2 hours |
Emails | 14 hours |
Meetings | 9 hours |
Lunch | 4 hours |
Afternoon break/chats | 2.5 hours |
Admin | 3 hours |
Travelling home | 4 hours |
Prepare dinner/chilling out | 6 hours |
Dinner | 2 hours |
Watching TV | 23.5 hours |
In this example, there was a feeling there was not enough time in this person’s working day to complete all of her work, yet she was spending 18 hours a week on just sending and answering emails, having coffee and chats.
I did not say she shouldn’t spend time chatting, etc - because that would not be realistic. However, I did suggest the client cut down on the amount of emails/coffee/chatting time to 12 hours per week instead of 18.
Hence, she would be gaining an extra days worth of work!
Also, the client was waking up and rushing to work each morning. Often getting stuck in traffic for what was a 10 minute journey normally. Leaving for work at 8:30am, especially when the kids are in school, is asking for trouble with traffic! Then arriving at work all ticked off the client would take 30 minutes to chill out, get a coffee and have a chat to prepare herself for the day.
By the time this was completed it was 9:30!
I asked the client to wake up 30 minutes earlier than normal, take a leisurely breakfast and have a cup of coffee, then leave for work relaxed and ready. This way she could ACTUALLY start work at 9:00.
The difference in travelling time with regards to leaving at say 8:15 and leaving at 8:30 would decrease the amount of travelling time by 15 minutes each day and would account for another hour or so each week.
I also posed the question about the amount of TV the client watched. A staggering 23.5 hours over a 5 day period! No wonder she didn’t have a lot of time!
I asked her if she enjoyed watching TV or if she had nothing better to do. "I just put it on and watch whatever is on" she said.
Now I am not one to say that you shouldn’t watch TV, far from it.
What I am saying is, unless you are getting something out of it, like enjoyment or knowledge you are literally wasting your time by passing your time by watching TV.
I asked my client to make a list of the alternative things she could do with the time, which included a sensible amount of time for the TV programmes she just had to watch. J Alternative Activity Why? Benefit? Gym/Workout Lose weight, have more energy Read more – newspapers/books Gain knowledge/keep up to date Work an additional 30 mins at work Miss out on 5:00pm rush, cut travelling time by 15 mins, get more work done Go out in the week Get out of the habit of staying in during work days. Enjoyment etc Computer Buy a computer, learn about Internet etc Night School Get that qualification in first aid I’ve always wanted Start a part time business Earn extra money! The next step was to ask her to put an action plan together for what she was going to do and when. Time is just a feeling really. It is a feeling of pressure that you cannot fit something in. By analysing her time, she found out she was wasting a great deal of it and she could be doing more productive tasks. Also, by the way she was managing her time and rushing to work, and then having a coffee because she was stressed out because of the rush – it all had an effect to make her feel under pressure and hence "I haven’t got enough time!" The subject of time management could take up a whole series of manuals to fully explain. I also described some of the most important elements of time management and some of the techniques that would enable her to organise, schedule and help her to get the most out of her time. I would like for you to look at some vital factors that you must consider when allocating your time. There are 4 factors in total - lets have a look at them. 1) Identify how you are spending your time in the present - both at home and at work. 2) Write out the tasks or activities you must do in order for you to achieve the objectives of your job or at home. These could include work tasks such as meetings, appraisals, E-mails, documentation and the like. Home activities could include cleaning, cooking, shopping, time with the children, watching television. Write all of them down. First - You will need to know how long you will want to spend on a particular task - this is determined by how important the task is. Second - you need to know how soon the task should be completed - this is determined by how urgent the task is. Important and urgent are not the same. An urgent task is not necessarily important. It may be urgent but trivial. A good rule of thumb is to remember that the tasks and activities that you have written will nearly always be important ones. The unimportant tasks are usually known as reactive tasks, which are the everyday running problems that have to be dealt with to keep things moving forward - for example, answering the telephone and responding to E-mails. 4) For successful time management, you must have an appointment book. Once you have worked out the tasks you need to do and their relative importance - the next step is too schedule these activities into your appointment book. In your appointment book, block out time for certain tasks. Also allow time for reactive tasks and regular duties - let people know when you are available, also allow time for reviewing and planning at the end of each day. Scheduling time for planning is essential on a daily basis. This should be done at the end of the working day or at night for your home duties. Within this time for planning you should draw up your schedule and also a TO DO list for the next day using the techniques that I have already mentioned. Schedule your activities in detail. The day is also broken down more comprehensively into 15 minute blocks of time, giving you better control. Cross out each activity as you complete them and make sure you complete them all. Planners are an excellent tool to use. They illustrate, at a glance, the days that you are off, and any events that you have planned on particular dates - I would strongly recommend that you purchase one. The last area we can look at are time saving techniques, which are the things that you can do to give yourself more time. By doing less, you can increase more of your available time. I see so many people who are snowed under with their workload and agenda, these people never seem to have a minute to spare and just take on more and more work. Let’s have a look at some of the things you can do. The first and most important question you can ask yourself is this: You can also discourage unnecessary meetings, don’t take work home, don’t take responsibility for other peoples problems and don’t become bogged down with detail. These are some of the things that you can do to free up some of your time, but one of the most important things you can do is say NO to certain requirements and requests that are asked of you. It is such an easy word to say in theory, but too many people don’t use it. Another excellent time saving technique is by working faster, and by reducing the time for particular tasks. Ensure deadlines are set and adhered to, keep your communications concise, take the most important tasks when you are alert - it is more time efficient and productive. Learn how to conclude meetings and conversations. Ensure meetings are run promptly and on time - there are many others. Another technique to reduce time is by working more effectively. Make sure that you plan your work, establish clear objectives, set priorities, be realistic, draw up TO DO lists daily and weekly, make efficient use of a diary, plan meetings and plan agendas. The time management techniques that I have just described will start you off in your quest to gain control of your life. Once you have control over your time, you will perform more effectively and have greater enjoyment.
So from being a couch potato, all of a sudden she was writing down the things she wanted to do with her time and was getting pumped up and excited about them as well. All this from saying she didn’t have enough time!
3) Schedule your work activities. In order for you to schedule your work activities there is a need to know 2 things.
Can I delegate certain activities? You can reduce your workload by getting other people to do it for you.