Creating More Time in the Day
Most of us feel like there is just not enough time in the day or week for everything we want to do. Time is a funny thing. I had a particularly stark experience with this when I did a yoga teacher training many years ago. For three months, this program required about 25 hours a week on top of my normal full-time job. I was not sure how I’d be able to squeeze that in, but somehow I made it happen. I remember thinking: when this ends, I have to make sure those 25 hours a week don’t just evaporate back into the flow of ordinary life. But of course, that is exactly what happened!
I have read a few books on this topic and I’ve tried some different things over the years. Here are a few suggestions if you are also looking to create more time in your life:
Track Your Time: some people may find this too onerous and (ironically) time-consuming, but I did this for a few weeks and it gave me a lot of insight about where my time was going. Consider logging your time for at least a week. Off the Clock is a great book and recommends making a spreadsheet to track 30-minute increments from when you wake up to when you go to sleep. Most of us have a default activity that consumes more hours than we realize. For some people, that might be watching television or playing on their phone. For me, it is the rabbit hole of the internet. I often have my laptop open to write in my journal and I accidentally get lost in hours of researching some random thing. The act of tracking made me a lot more aware of what I was doing with my time and led to more intention. It gave me a baseline sense of how many hours were getting swallowed up mindlessly.
Choose a Focus Area: My yoga teacher training was a good example that if we have to make time for something, we find a way to do it. Given that most people are not going to do time-tracking for an extended period, an idea I came up with is to have a few areas of focus and at the end of each day, I take a few seconds to jot down how much time I spent on each one. Right now, my focus areas are meditation, exercise, reading, and practicing Spanish. There is something about this practice that holds me more accountable to carve out time for each of these things every day. For people that have very hectic lives with young kids or demanding jobs, I would recommend choosing one focus area. Think about when is the most practical time to work that into your life and try different techniques to incorporate it into your routine. Ideally, put it on your calendar and honor the commitment as if it was a plan with a friend. It helps create more intention around making it a priority, and that time will probably come from the “mindless default” bucket.
Notice Your Tendencies: We all are wired differently so a key step is paying attention to your habits and then you can figure out how you can tackle them. I realized I had this pattern of having a random thought and immediately wanting to look into it. I would be in the middle of something and would get sidetracked by some question, or a new idea I wanted to research. Make Time is another good book and suggested making a random question list, rather than following every thought that comes to mind. This helps me stay focused on whatever I’m doing in the moment, rather than giving in to the distraction. Another thing is to notice your energy throughout the day and try to pick the right time for whatever you are trying to do. I used to exercise in the evening but more recently I’ve noticed a distinct trend that if I don’t exercise in the morning, it is far less likely to happen.
Accept We Can’t Get to Everything: I’ve noticed recurring low-level anxiety that I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do. All of us have unexpected things that come up in our lives, so a good approach is to have an intention and do your best to follow through. Try to be aware of what is feasible given your life obligations and set a goal that feels achievable. Dwelling on not having enough time for everything just weighs us down and detracts from our happiness.
If you are interested in exploring this more, check out the two books I mentioned above. What struck me most is how much mindfulness and intention are at the heart of creating more time in our lives.
Is there something you’ve been trying to make more time for? Try out some of these ideas or let me know if you have other suggestions that have been helpful for you!