The one thing that we struggle immensely with is Time. We never seem to have enough time to do all we need to in a day. How do we navigate this space?
We want to help ourselves but we don't have the time. Now there's so much irony in that lol
Firstly, is the realisation that we can't manage time. Its independent of us. We have to go with the flow and try and make the best of what we do have and that is with anything in life.
It's really more of a mind shift. Perhaps we need to call it "Time Allocation" like an asset allocation. Time being your number one asset. There is a set amount of time no matter what, so how do you divide that time - how do you manage yourself so that you use that time wisely?
We often say that time is going by too fast, but in actual fact time is going by at the rate that time does...hmmmm
1. Be at peace with time. Make it practical. In everyday terms, give yourself grace to understand that there's only so much you can do. Realign your expectations.
What can you do with less time? The 4 hour work week by Tim Ferriss is a good reference for this. Take pressure off yourself.
2. Put buffer zones into your schedule. Layer in some time to alleviate pressure and stress off of your schedule so that you don't feel pressured every second of the day. To allocate your activities by time, you allow yourself to do specific time allocated tasks in your calendar as opposed to a to do list which doesn't account for time and seems endless.
3. I use the approach of a 3 layer cake. Your 3 important daily non-negotiables that will make an impact in your day and keep the needle in your business moving. If I do those and there's still time available, then the additional activities are sprinkles on the top. This will help with your mindset. It creates a sense of achievement in that, what was scheduled, being achievable, was accomplished and you feel motivated to carry on.
4. Getting help does help! Delegate and use resources to do the things that you don't need to do in your business and life. You don't need to employ someone. You can outsource activities to people who specialise in these activities e.g. a Virtual assistant.
5. Watch your screen time. Time that we waste and don't even realise. This can be sapping you of valuable time and energy. Use a timer to help you manage your time on social media better as an example.
You need to free yourself up to allow for a healthy, creative mind space to cope and develop new ideas. Something will always come up so we have to allow ourselves latitude to deal with those bigger objectives. So instead of feeling derailed understand that these things are inevitable and also out of your control. Rather be in flow with that. Still do the big picture things but be flexible.
Society puts pressure on us regarding time. We always feel like we're chasing the clock. Get rid of that...release that pressure and learn to flow.
On closing:
Energise - do things that energise you. Make the time. You will thank yourself.
Buffer zone - create buffer zones to alleviate pressure and allocate time to tasks
Don't schedule up every waking moment and breathe - allow yourself to reflect
Sometimes the most productive thing to do is to do nothing at all. Don't discount the downtime to reflect.
Leave us your time management tips!!
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