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In the business of life, many of us feel time-poor. There’s lots to get done (and even more we aspire to accomplish) but just not enough time for it all. Or so we think.
The reality is that there is, in fact, plenty of time – 168 hours in every week to be precise. A study called the American Time Use Survey found that most Americans get almost nine hours of sleep each night and that parents in full-time, paid employment, work on average 40 hours per week (pre-pandemic data). That leaves 65 hours for everything else – ample time for chores, childcare, exercise, and hobbies. Yet somehow, few of us feel time-rich.
In this post, I’ll lay out a plan for reclaiming your time. With it, you can comfortably manage your schedule and smash your goals in 2021.
Track your time
The first step, as outlined by Laura Vanderkam in her book 168 hours, is to identify how you currently spend your time. You may have a vague idea, but it’s worth tracking exactly how you spend each hour of each day in a journal for a couple of weeks. From this, you’ll have a better picture of what’s taking up your precious minutes and be able to figure out where you can make changes.
Outsource and streamline tasks
Next, identify the activities that are taking up a lot of your time. If they’re ones you’d rather spend less time on then consider outsourcing them. If that’s impractical, figure out what you can do to streamline that task or how you can upskill to get through it more quickly.
For example, if you spend a long time grocery shopping and cooking meals but don’t particularly enjoy it then consider changing your approach to this.
Instead of shopping in-store switch to ordering online – this will save you time and probably money as you’re less likely to impulse buy. Instead of making each meal from scratch, meal prep for the week so you have healthy meals ready to eat. Alternatively, use recipe boxes like Gousto or Simply Cook (two of my personal favourites). It might cost a bit more than doing everything yourself, but you’ll have to weigh that against time saved. Don’t hold back on spending a little more to make life easier.
If you can’t justify the extra costs, invest in learning how to cook more effectively. Perfect some staple dishes. Get advice from friends and family. Improving your skill and increasing your knowledge, even slightly, can speed up the process (and make it more enjoyable!).
Apply this approach to anything that’s taking up more time than you want. Question how you do things and consider if there are other, better, ways to do them. Don’t accept the status quo.
A note: it’s probably worth mentioning that if you’re no good at cooking/any other task, but enjoy it or are looking to improve then carry on as you are. Not every activity needs to be optimised. Just the ones you’d rather not do.
Finally, if there is any activity you can’t outsource or streamline, make it more enjoyable, such as listening to a podcast while folding laundry. Or simply lose yourself in it and let your mind wander.
Consolidate tasks
We often dip in and out of tasks or do similar ones multiple times throughout the week. These can be consolidated. An example could be running errands – instead of doing one here and there just knock them all out at once.
This can be applied to anything you do regularly. Instead of checking social media, doing paperwork, or having meetings intermittently, batch these activities. This way you’ll not sink time dipping in and out of these activities but can be comfortable knowing that you have a set time to tackle them all at once. Further, by bunching together similar types of tasks you will get into a ‘flow’ and finish them more efficiently.
Plan your time
You’ve reduced the amount of time you spend on uninteresting activities. How do you fill the rest? There’s a danger that we end up spending too much time on leisure activities, such as TV (I am guilty of this) as it’s easy, accessible, and enjoyable.
While downtime is important, it’s also important to make time for more difficult but aspiration-driven activities. This could be reading, exercising, side projects, family time etc. – the things we want to do more of but can end up avoiding as they require effort. For these activities, we rely on our motivation and ‘having enough time’. The issue with this strategy is that motivation is unreliable and we can trick ourselves into thinking there isn’t ‘enough time’ when there is.
The best way to ensure you have the time for both the fun stuff and the more-difficult-but-necessary stuff is by blocking out space for them in your calendar. In his book, Deep Work, Cal Newport advocates planning every hour of your day. This level of scheduling means the things that need to be done will get done as you’re relying less on your mood and deferring to your pre-planned schedule.
You can pencil in time for TV, family time, reading, exercise, you name it. And this way, you can hack Parkinson’s law. If you give yourself an hour to iron and fold the laundry, you’ll take up the whole hour. If you only give yourself 30 minutes, you’ll get it done in that time.
Practically, use the calendar app on your phone. Every evening, plan what you’ll do for every hour of the next day and put it in your calendar. Planning your time in this way will help you consistently work on your goals whilst also keeping a check on your leisure time.
This might seem overly rigid and structured but you’ll find that it’s actually more freeing. You’ll be able to accomplish everything you want without having to exert too much willpower and lose less time on ‘filler activities’ such as being on your phone with no real purpose. Give it a try.
Prioritise
You don’t need (and won’t be able) to do everything. Cut out the activities that aren’t adding much value and learn to say no to whatever’s not a priority. A part of finding more time is also prioritising. Think of the minutes of the day as a finite currency. Where are you willing to spend yours?
Rethink your time
Finally, a word on mindset. For most of my adult life, in my mind, the weekdays were for work and the weekends were for other things. This meant every evening after work I’d simply want to wind down and end up watching hours of Netflix and maybe read a little if I had the motivation.
But I came across some thoughts from Arnold Bennet’s, an English writer born near the turn of the 20th century, that resonated with me and changed my perspective.
He wrote that people that work (say 9 – 5) simply see the hours before and after their working hours as a ‘prologue and an epilogue’ to their working day. This outlook is ‘utterly illogical and unhealthy’ as these people, tragically, aren’t realising the potential of this time. We should instead see the time before and after our working hours as a ‘day within a day‘. During these hours we are free to do whatever we want and it is up to us to put this time to good use.
So, shift how you think about your time. Those hours before and after work add up to a lot so use them to get stuff done.
Everyone’s lives are different, with varying working hours and unique demands on our time. But know that, whatever your circumstance, you can always find more time for the things you care about.
Question how you do things now. Consolidate and prioritise your activities. Plan ahead. Make 2021 the year you reclaim your time.
Want further resources?
I would highly recommend Deep Work by Cal Newport for excellent, actionable advice on how to get more done.
