Four Quick Tips to Find More Time in Your Day

I don’t think there are many of us that would argue there’s never seems to be enough time in the day. The questions remain, not only how do we find more time in the day but also, how can we become more productive with our time. Many of us go through our days on auto pilot. That’s not to say we don’t work hard and think into our projects, meetings or family but we tend to engage at a subconscious level and are fairly habitual in our day to day activities.

Here are a couple of quick tips to help you not only find more time in the day, but improve the quality of your time too!

1.Track and Reflect

Have you ever used a tracking tool to log the food you consume on a daily basis? If you have, you may be surprised to see how many calories you are actually putting into your body on any given day. Similarly, if you track the things you do each day in 15-20 minute intervals, you may be surprised to see how much time you are spending on unproductive tasks that add little to no value to your day. Try logging everything you do each day in 15 minutes intervals then reflect on this at the end of your day. After doing this for a week, you should be able to identify at least a half hour of your day where your time may be better spent. In some cases, this could be upwards of an hour! Tracking for one week will provide you with an accurate representation of how a typical weekday and weekend play out for you. From there you will get some good, clear insight into how you may be able to use some of your time more effectively.

Estimated time gained: 3.5 – 7 hours/week

2. Practice the 3 P’s – Plan, Plot and Prepare

One of the excuses I always used to make for not following a healthy eating plan was that I was just too busy to think about preparing meals. Let’s face it, life can be busy and chaotic, the last thing I wanted to think about was what I was making for dinner that night let alone meals for the week! As I grew to become more intentional in my living, I came to realize that by planning my meals out for the week, using a grocery list to shop and preparing meals in advance I’m actually saving time and money! No more running out 3-4 times during the week to pick up groceries or worse, fast food to feed to the family and no more stressing over what to make for dinner. We are eating healthier, more balanced meals and because I now have a system and I am not wandering the grocery store wondering what to buy, I have my shopping down to 30 minutes!

Time gained: approximately 3 hours per week

4. Limit Distractions

Dr. Gloria Mark, associate professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, conducted a study which found the average information workers are interrupted every three minutes – nearly twenty times per hour and it takes 23 minutes on average to get back on task. Now, a minor distraction is obviously not going to take that long to get you back on track but you get the picture. So clearly if we limit distractions we can find more time in our day. But how do we do that? Well in order to understand how we can limit the distractions, we need to know what they are. Email accounts for approximately 23% of distractions, human interruption and IM or text messaging account for approximately 30% of distractions while self-distraction occurs 44% of the time. That’s right, we are distracting ourselves, whether it’s popping in to check social media sites, or trying to multi-task, we account for 44% of the distractions that take us 23 minutes to recover from!

I’ve been a victim of my own sabotage many a time with 7 different tasks on the go thinking I can get them all done quicker if I work on them simultaneously, but seriously, who do I think I am? Very few people can multi-task and complete every task error free and to the best of their ability. It’s important to focus on 1 thing and do it well. Be fully present, less muti-task, more focus will eliminate the disruption of navigating from task to task to task thereby eliminating the average 23 minute recovery time needed to get back to focus. In addition, block off time to concentrate on a task. Turn off your phone, close email and hang a sign on your door, cubical, around your neck – wherever - saying “think time, be with you in a bit”! By scheduling this “think time” in your calendar, you have a better chance of limiting distractions, increasing your productivity and finding more time in your day.

Time gained: Up to 10 hours per week (Eliminate 5 interruptions per day x 23 mins/ interruption over a 5 day work week)

5. Early Bird Gets the Worm

You may already be an early riser and if so, then you can skip this part but for those of you who like to hit the snooze, I have news for you. By getting up an extra half hour early each day, you can in fact increase your productivity by up to one hour. How’s that for a return – ½ hour sacrifice can give you a full hour of productivity you didn’t have before! When you wake up early, you have more time for planning, strategic thinking, and getting organized. You are much more productive and will find yourself wasting less time from being disorganized or making poor decisions. There are many things you can do with the extra time such as hit the (home) gym, run, prepare for the day, read, meditate or simply get your day started earlier.

Time gained: Up to 7 hours/ week

As you can see, there are many things we can do to find more time in our week and to increase productivity. In fact, just with these 5 tips alone, you can gain up to 27 hours in one week! So what are you waiting for? Time to give yourself more time!

If this resonates with you, be sure to pick up a copy of my book YOUR EXTRAORDINARY SELF for more tips on how to #BYBS – be your best self - and always remember #AnythingsPossible