Discover More Time in your Busy Schedule Immediately

Discover More Time in your Busy Schedule Immediately

“I don’t have time to do that.” Ever hear that? Maybe you’ve said it, heck, I’ve said that, until I actually thought about my daily schedule to see where the time goes. Chunks of time were spent staring off in the distance THINKING about what I want to do in that spare time. We lose productiveness.

See the irony in that statement? The problem many have is they take breaks in little bit size pieces and they tell themselves that they don’t have the time to do what they want on hobbies, spending it with the people they love, getting their finances in order. What can you do to grab the reins of your time like an entrepreneur?

Entrepreneurs, such as Elon Musk & Jack Dorsey, work tons of hours a week but have time to do everything they need to do. You don’t even need to work as much as they do as they are much more work-orientated than family-oriented, most want a balance.

In Todd Henry’s book, “The Accidental Creative”, he gives some quick tips on productivity.

Learn to Prune

This is a key component to building better time management, learn to Prune the less effective processes. Many people, unknowingly, spend hours, not to mention DAYS of their lives just checking emails. Not even answering emails, just checking. Henry calls it the “Ping”. We get that nagging in our head that we need to check our phone.

I find when my mind is wondering that I automatically will grab my phone to check for a message only to find nothing. Then it takes about 30 seconds to refocus and get back to what you’re doing.

Thus, you blow almost a minute of counterproductive behavior that adds up all throughout the day. It’s funny because there are easy ways to prune unproductive time such as the “Ping.” I started by taking off automatic syncing of emails so I have to manually go into the app to update for new emails not by seeing each 1 at a time or wasting time looking for notifications of new emails. Automate yourself to build the habit.

Beyond the phone, where else do you waste big chunks of time? Duh, TV. We waste so much time with the boob tube we feel it’s a necessity. You can’t just say “I won’t watch TV” because it doesn’t work like that. It’s mostly a matter of discipline, some shows Sam and I love to watch and that’s fine we enjoy programming together.

Counter productiveness creeps up when we find ourselves watching an episode of our favorite show “Big Bang Theory” that we’ve seen at least 10,000x. Do we really need to watch it again, it’s about catching yourself and asking “Is there something better I can be doing?” Sometimes spending the time just watching your favorite show with your spouse is the best thing you could be doing.

“Is there something better I could be doing?” – Key to Pruning and time management.

Batching

Tim Ferriss stresses in the “4 Hour Work Week” the art of batching. As with e-mail, you consolidate all random tasks into 1 time slot. Instead of answering 1 email at a time when you receive it, wait until you receive all the emails and answer all of them in the same time period.

It saves time, focus, and energy. As the top entrepreneurs do, they schedule time for each task they need. You can do the same!

Plan ahead to when you have free time. I know at certain times throughout the day where they will be a lull in work/action so I can plan ahead for that time. You only have certain slots throughout the day to be productive for your own activities, know when they are coming up so you can prepare mentally to get to work!

BONUS MATERIAL:

Check out Tom Ewer’s tips on Efficiency!

(page114 Accidental)

Sources: “Accidental Creative” Todd Henry.