When was the last time you felt like there was not enough time in the day, in the week, in the month to get everything done that you would like to do? How often does it turn out that you end up doing the things you ‘have to’ do rather than the things that you ‘want to’ do? How would it be if you could turn around that statement!

I do not claim to know the true percentage of people that ‘feel’ that there is not enough time in the day to make room for all of the activities they need to and would like to do, but as a coach, I’ve heard this topic so many times that I know its prevalence in our soceity must be phenomenally large. Another observation I have had is that quite often our life is completely pre-occupied by the things that we have to do, and there is little if any room for the things we want to do. Does something sound wrong in this scenario? If you relate to this take a deep breath and know you are not alone.

How can I make time?

Thats a beautiful question. None of us can make time. There are 24 hours per day, and the clock ticks at the same pace for everyone. The only question we do not know the answer to is how many ticks we will ultimately have in our lifespan. We can hedge against our risk of having fewer clicks available to us by living a healthy lifestyle, lowering stress, eating well, doing preventative screenings, and exercising. But as you know, with any facet of life, there are no guarantees.

So if I can’t make time, and I do not see any breathing room in my schedule, what are my options? And no - the answer is not less sleep!

Making time - Step 1 active engagement

The first step is actively engaging in the question itself. Since you are reading this article you have begun the first step and I want to acknowledge you for making the time to make this a priority! By actively engaging in the question, you are taking this opportunity to put aside the frustration you may be experiencing around this whole topic, you are giving yourself some breathing room to work with, and you are allowing yourself to objectively look at where your time is spent without getting caught up in the possible sense of ‘overwhelm’. Now if you are reading this portion and thinking to yourself ‘Who has the time to do this!’, then that might be a trigger that lets you know how valuable of an exercise this is!

Engage in the question – where do I spend my time. And when I say ‘engage in’, I mean pull out a clean piece of paper and write it down. Perhaps if you are a scheduler, you’ve got a calendar (either paper based or electronic) that clearly shows where you spend your time. If you are less of a scheduler, you might have more of a challenge knowing where your time is spent. Regardless, at first sitting, write down the things you are doing that occupy your time in a typical week. Write down how much time they take. For example, here’s what a typical week looks like for me.

Weekdays:

• 8 hours sleep

• 1.5 hours commute

• .75 hours preparing for work (morning activities)

• 8 hours work (can be broken down further if necessary)

• .5 hours lunch

• 1 hour dinner preparation/eating

• .5 hour email

• .75 hour exercise

• 2 hours watching daughter/bathing her/putting to sleep

• .75 hours bathing, brushing teeth

• 1 hour television

Weekends:

• 9 hours sleep

• 1.5 hours breakfast

• 1 hour dining out

• 1.5 hours exercise

• 2 hours gardening

• 2 hours shopping

• 2 hours television

• 1 hour computer time

• 4 hours entertainment

If you can’t just write it out from memory or your calendar it can be a fascinating experience to physically log your activities for a full week – you may be very surprised to find where you are leaking time!

Making time – Step 2 – Listing observations

So you’ve built a pretty accurate listing of what your typical week looks like and you’ve broken down the hours. Perhaps you’ve even tracked a weeks worth of data to see what it really looks like. Write down all of the observations that you have for yourself. You are not looking for time in the schedule at this point, its simply listing the observations. Your list may look something like this:

1. I spend a lot of time per week commuting to work and back

2. I am very happy that I can spend 2 hours per night with my daughter – this time is precious!

3. I am pleased that I am able to maintain an 8 hour work day!

4. I never considered myself to watch a lot of television, but the news and a couple of my favorite shows take up 9 hours/week, thats a lot of time

5. My weekends vary greatly, I am very busy one weekend, then relatively open the next. When my wife travels to her mothers with the baby, I have a lot of time to myself.

Observations are neither good or bad, they are simply our observations. What do you see for yourself when looking at the paper?

Making time – Step 3 – Relating Priorities

By this point I’ve got a pretty good understanding of my schedule, I’ve been able to draw some observations from it and most likely for the busy person struggling to manage time, one observation might be – wow I’m really busy! Hopefully in going through this it is becoming very clear where the time is spent. Common areas are often time spent at work and with commitments made to the community or with children. Again – you are not alone!

Put aside your time management notes for the moment and on a separate piece of paper make another list. If there were infinite time available to you how would you spend your time? I know this is not a possible scenario as all of our time is limited, but its a valuable exercise nevertheless. Here’s a partial listing what my answers looks like:

• with family

• developing my business

• travelling often, experiencing other cultures, and relaxing at the beach

• playing tennis

• speaking to groups

• writing….

Give the question some thought and build a comprehensive list. As your list develops cross reference it to how you actually spend your time. Again, what are the observations you have? One I notice for myself right now is that its been a long time since I’ve been to the beach – I am thrilled to say we are planning a trip to Hawaii for early next year right now!!!

Making time – Step 4 – Seeing Opportunities

By this time you may have begun to start seeing some opportunities. For those thoroughly entrenched in your own busy-ness, you may be so pre-occupied by the details of your hectic schedule that the opportunities may not have arisen yet.

Opportunities come in many shapes and forms. When talking about time management, some of the opportunities may present themselves in the following ways:

1. Ways to use time more efficiently

2. Dropping items out of the schedule

3. Reducing the amount of time spent in a particular area

4. Learning to say no to time drains and yes to support

5. Discerning between ’scheduled’ time and ‘fun’ time and treating it as such

Let me take a moment to provide examples of each:

Ways to use time more efficiently – I am continually educating myself on personal development, health and wellness. I love to read and to learn. I don’t have a lot of time for reading available to me at the moment. I find my nuggets of time here and there, but I’ve found that listening to audio tapes is a great way to get the same information and I can do it while driving. I’ve cut ½ hour of tv time out of my day by listening to 45 minutes of the news on the radio on my way to work, and i get a solid 45 minutes of educational tapes to listen to on the way back. This comes out to well over 150 hours of audio lessons per year – wow!

Dropping items out of the schedule – I recently worked with a woman that was ‘overcommitted’ and when she listed out where she spent her time, it was clear that volunteering to bring food to her son’s football games was not something she could practically spend the time to do. She clearly found that she could still be a loving parent without engaging in this activity.

Reducing the amount of time spent in a particular area – many people spend a lot of time doing one thing. Whether its in front of the TV, being an exercise junkee, spending all their time on the phone, or spending 60 hours per week at work. Ask yourself what is the worst thing that would happen if I cut this back? What would be the best thing I could gain by doing so? Think outside the box – have you ever considered working a 32 hour week and accepting less pay? It might not be the right answer for you, but entertain the options and see what comes up – you may surprise yourself as you brainstorm.

Learning to say no to time drains and yes to support – Many of us are quick to claim our dissatisfaction with a situation but slow to make change. You can say no to additional obligations, and you can say yes to support. Being a ‘lone ranger’ that needs to do it all on your own is a recipe for imbalance (and less financial success).

Discerning between ’scheduled’ time and ‘fun’ time and treating it as such – This is a common problem of perception. So often I hear about commitments that people have to do and how busy the schedule is, and how frustrated they are. When we discuss the busy items, they are the things most people would love to do! One example is; I am so busy! I need to get a massage, then get my hair done, followed by my cousins wedding! Yes these items occupy time, however each should provide a sense of enjoyment rather than dread. Which items are you treating as tasks, rather than seeing them as opportunities to enjoy yourself when looking at your schedule?

Making time – Step 5 – Taking Action

Ultimately the name of the game is to take action. If you want things to change, what action would you be willing to take? Depending on what you see in going through this exercise you may warrant a significant lifestyle change, or you might be looking at making some minor adjustments. However if you finish this article and never take action, then you’ve simply found one more place in which you’ve drained your time.

A great note to leave you with are some numbers. This is a something my mentor Maria Nemeth shared with me. Write down the number 1440 on a piece of paper. This is the number of minutes in a day. Write next to it the number 10. If you are able to spend just 10 minutes per day focusing your attention on a topic, this is equivalent to a 60 hour collegiate course by the end of the year. Pretty phenomenal. When it comes to time, I truly believe that the real challenge is one of priority – not one of having enough time. Look at your own life and see how your time management has changed as your life priorities have changed. The question then becomes one of whether your prioirites are in alignment with your personal values. A great topic for which I’d love to hear your comments.

Be Well

Related Articles:  Coming Soon

Written by Doug Nau, The Wellness Coach, i-grow.net