What would you do if you had an extra hour a day?
This is a common barrier I run into when I write about making positive life changes: People donʼt have time to pursue their dreams. People donʼt have time to exercise. People donʼt have time to get organized.
Well, itʼs time to make time.
By using some combination of the following, you can free up an hour or more a day. Find the ones that work for you (not all will work for everyone), and then carve out that hour a day.
Then make sure you use that extra hour a day in the best way possible — book that hour on your calendar for something you really, really want to do, whether thatʼs work on a goal, write a book, start a business, exercise, read more, or whatever.
Donʼt squander this gift of time!
1. Make an appointment right after work.
Whether itʼs exercise or working on some other goal, make an appointment to do it right when you get out of work (at 5 p.m., for example).
This works especially well if you have to meet someone else, such as a workout partner or other group or team or coach or partner.
Youʼll be sure to meet the appointment, which means you wonʼt stick around work too long, and youʼll be sure to finish all your tasks on time so you can leave on time.
This makes you more efficient, especially in the afternoon.
2. Wake up earlier.
Iʼve written about this before, of course, but Iʼve found time for goals that are important to me by waking a bit earlier.
Exercise, writing, reading — I do those now early in the day, so it doesnʼt interfere with college, my study time and other appointments, I might have.
Early in the day works well for me and many others, simply because thereʼs not much going on to distract or interrupt at this time of day.
Another benefit of tackling your goals early in the day, is that your willpower is highest in the morning. After a long day of work, you will most likely be exhausted and you’ll use all the remaining energy to find a good excuse, not to do, whatever it is you planned.
3. Turn off the phone.
You sit on your desk, completely focused on the task at hand, when suddenly a message pops up on your phone. You decide to take a short look at it – just in case, it’s something important. It’s not important, but you decide to answer it anyway. While you’re at it, you can also quickly check your mail. Oh, your favorite blog published a new post and the shoes, you had an eye on for weeks are on sale! And that’s it. You’re down the rabbit hole.
You donʼt have to turn off your phone all day long. (I’m in a long-distance relationship, so not answering the phone all day would propably be a bad idea.)
But you should have some unbroken blocks of time when you donʼt take calls or answer messages, so you can concentrate on your important tasks. This allows you to get more done in less time, as phone calls, social media pop-ups and What’s App messages can eat up big chunks of your day, if you let them.
You can also put your phone in Do Not Disturb mode. This setting only has an effect if your phone is locked. You can schedule Do Not Disturb to repeat at the same time each day, and to set exceptions for certain phone numbers – e.g. your spouse’s or your kids’ – to ring through.
4. Stop checking email.
This doesnʼt work for everyone, but if you can stop checking email except at one or two times during the day, you can free up a lot of wasted time. Checking email constantly takes up a lot of time.
5. Pack your lunch.
Many people I know take an hour or more for lunch. While a relaxing lunch can be a good thing, if you take lunch to work, you can eat quickly and either spend the extra time 1) working on a goal; or 2) getting work done so you can leave earlier. Plus, brown bagging it saves money too.
However, beware that having lunch with colleagues is a good chance for networking and socializing. Eating alone at your desk might harm your relationships with colleagues and the office climate. In this case, have lunch with your colleagues most of the time and only pack lunch once a week, or when you couldn’t make enough time for your goals otherwise.
6. Figure out your core work activities.
What is it that you really have to do each day?
I mean, the stuff you have to do, or your job would fall apart. If you really think about it, a lot of the tasks you do each day (and phone calls and emails, mentioned above, are included in these tasks) donʼt really need to be done each day.
Sometimes you can do them less often, sometimes you donʼt need to do them at all. If you can learn to focus on your core activities, you can get your work done in less time.
7. Cancel a meeting or two.
Think about the last 4-5 meetings youʼve gone to. How many of them were really valuable? How many of them did you need to be at?
It depends on your job, but sometimes you can beg out of a meeting — or just outright cancel it, if you have that power — and accomplish the same thing through an email or two.
You just saved yourself 30-60 minutes per meeting canceled. That makes two to five extra hours a week. Awesome, right? 🙂
From Visually.
8. Delegate.
Not everyone has this option, but if you can give some of the tasks on your list to others who are better suited to doing those tasks, youʼll free up time. Do you really need to be doing everything you do, or can some of those tasks be delegated?
If you want to learn more on how to delegate work, read The 4 Hour Work Week. It’s not just a business classic – and a must-read for everyone, no matter his or her profession – but also the ultimate guide to start delegating.
Here’s a quick introduction:
9. Consolidate errands.
If you routinely do errands throughout the week, youʼre spending a lot of time driving. Instead, try to do all errands on one day, and plan out an efficient route. Most people will save at least an hour a week in total.
My fiancé and I spend almost every saturday in the city, shopping and doing errands (like all of the wedding-related stuff). It doesn’t only safe us time during the week, but it also gives us some quality time together, when we grab lunch in the city and shop for family-presents hand in hand. 🙂 (Yes, we’re this kind of couple. Sorry.)
10. Know your priority.
What is the one thing you need to do today? Get that done, above all else, and do it first. After you do that priority task, the rest is extra really. Cut back on some of the rest to free up time.
Do this every morning. It only takes five minutes:
- Choose your MIT ( = Most Important Task) of the day.)
- Decide, how much time it will take.
- Decide, when exactly you’re gonna do it and put it in your calendar. If possible, don’t do anything else, until you finished this task.
11. Shrink your task list.
Once youʼve identified your core work activities and your top priority for the day, go over your task list and whittle it down to the essentials.
Put tasks you donʼt need to do now on a someday/maybe list (a concept from the Getting Things Done method), delete others, delegate others.
Keep your task list down to the essentials, to keep from wasting time.
12. Say no.
One of the biggest groups of time eaters is requests from other people.
All day long we get requests, in person, on the phone, in email, through paperwork. Meetings, assignments, requests for information, requests to be on a committee or team … these are all requests that will eat up your time.
Say no to all but the essentials (like the one’s from your wife, obviously 😉 ).
13. Get to the point.
While Iʼm a fan of long, deep conversations, if youʼre trying to make time for goals, you need to whittle down needlessly long conversations — especially if itʼs just with a co-worker, who isnʼt a close friend.
In person or on the phone, you need to get straight to the point with a minimum of chit-chat, and if the other person isnʼt getting to the point, politely ask what he needs from you.
14. Watch less TV.
Many people watch hours of TV a day. You can easily save an hour a day if you cut TV out, or just watch your single favorite show each day. Donʼt channel surf.
I’m guilty of this. I always tell myself, that I don’t waste the time, because I only watch TV on the side, while doing something else. But I know, it’s not true. Multitasking might be one of the biggest killers of productivity, ever.
I plan to start tracking my time and see, how many extra hours and extra productivity I will get, if I don’t watch TV on the side.
15. Read less online.
If youʼre like me, you can spend hours a day reading online. Limit your online reading and focus on your essential tasks.
Read Should You 10X Your Goals
16. Donʼt talk long on the phone.
Long phone conversations can eat up a lot of your time. Instead, know what you want to accomplish and try to get that done quickly.
If someone else is calling you, encourage them to get to the point, and then wrap it up when youʼre done. Tell them you have to go because youʼve got something else to get to.
17. Avoid Instant Messaging and Social Media.
Iʼm not saying these types of instant communication donʼt have their uses, but if theyʼre always on and youʼre always available, youʼre always at the mercy of others.
Instead, just make yourself available at set times if necessary, or not at all if itʼs not necessary.
18. Search, donʼt file.
I used to spend a lot of time filing all my computer files and all my emails into nice, organized folders. Iʼd spend time every day doing this. Now, I just archive everything, on computer and email, and search when I need something.With Quicksilver on the Mac, every file is within a few keystrokes.
With Gmail or a Mail App on your computer, where you can search multiple email accounts at once, every email is accessible instantly. No time spent filing!
This easily gives me one to three extra hours a week to work on my goals.
19. Leave early.
If youʼre using these time-saving tips, you should be able to finish your essential work early. If so, donʼt use the extra time to just do more work … leave early!
Of course, youʼll probably have to talk to your boss about this, but many people have flexible hours and many bosses would be happy to let you go early if you get your work done.
If you set your own hours, set an earlier time to leave and youʼll ensure that you get your work done by that time.
20. Get the kids or your spouse to help out.
At home, if you have kids, it saves huge heaploads of time if you let the kids help with cleaning and other tasks.
At first, of course, it will cost you time because you have to teach them to do things. But once they learn … itʼll free up much of your time.
I you get your kids to help clean the house, it can reduce the amount of time you have to spend cleaning by 2/3 and you will have plenty of extra hours for the things, that really matter to you. Of course, they made the mess in the first place, but thatʼs another story.
If you live together with your spouse, make a plan, who does which chores. It will safe you both time and a lot of discussions.
21. Educate others.
Is there something, that other people submit to you, that you routinely have to edit or reformat?
Teach these people (maybe with an FAQ or tutorial), how to do it right or how you need it, so you donʼt have to make changes.
Are there mistakes people are doing that you routinely have to fix? Are there things you have to do yourself because others donʼt know how to do it? Educate them, and save yourself tons of time. It takes time at first, but the payoff is huge.
This is a problem, you’ll inevitabely face, when you start outsourcing to VAs and other freelancers. Investing the time to teach them, how you want the work to be done, will safe you a ton of time in the long-run.
22. Automate things.
If people submit stuff to you, or if you routinely have to do routine work, find ways to have the process automated. Technology works wonders these days.
Since I’m quite eager to establish more automation processes for my own work as well, I will soon publish a seperate post about different possibilities for automation. So, if you’re interested in this topic, stay tuned. 🙂
Read Top 10 Hacks for Automating your Life (on Lifehacker)
23. Just say, “Thatʼs enough.”
Often you are overloaded with information and tasks. But if you donʼt respond to all of your emails today, or donʼt read all of the posts in your RSS reader, or donʼt get to all the tasks on your to-do lists … what will happen? If nothing drastic will happen, consider stopping, when youʼve gotten to enough.
24. Start work early.
If you work before everyone gets in the office, you wonʼt have constant interruptions and distractions. Youʼll be amazed how much you can get done between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
My soon-to-be husband always starts his work at 6 a.m. and unless there are any meetings in the afternoon, he can regullarly leave the office at 3 p.m. and enjoy his afternoons.
25. Give others authority.
If you have to approve things or make decisions, you might be a bottleneck — things move slower if they have to be channeled through you. Instead, give others the authority to make decisions — with clear instructions about what decisions should be made under what circumstances, and what the limits of their authority are. Thatʼll remove a bottleneck and free you up from having to make a bunch of huge decisions. Just have a way to monitor things as necessary.
What’s the one strategy, you want to implement today? Leave a comment!
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