8 Ways to Find More Time
to Work on Your Personal Goals
When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time ~ Creighton Abrams Jr.
One thing I have learned along my journey is that to achieve our personal goals we must set aside time every day to do something towards achieving it, no matter how small that ‘something’ is. Like the proverbial elephant, we can eat it one bite at a time or in this case, accomplish our goals one task at a time.
Often we wonder how we can get it all done. It is easy to feel overwhelmed as if there is just so much to do and not nearly enough time.
For quite a while, I struggled with being able to manage my day, having a full-time job, wanting to keep a clean home, doing extra studies to advance myself in life, taking care of a family, all while trying to pursue my dreams.
I had to make adjustments and find creative and not-so-creative ways to free up time in my day in order to focus on what is really important.
We all have 24 hours in a day. No one has more or less. The most successful people on the planet have the same amount of time to get stuff done and obviously they get it done, hence their success.
Here I will share 8 ways to free up time in your day to work on your side hustle.
1. Simplify your grooming routine
In my younger days, I used to spend quite a lot of time primping and pruning myself in front of the mirror. Getting ready for the day always entailed waiting for my curling iron to heat up, curling and styling my hair, putting on makeup etc.
Much of this changed when I decided to simplify my grooming routine.
I started wearing my hair in simple hairstyles that I knew suited my face. One of these was a ponytail, easy to brush into place and put in a hair holder and the other was a high bun on the top of my head when I needed a more elegant look.
I was also able to simplify my makeup routine and narrow down my makeup application routine to one simple face that I can wear every day.
I save the special looks for special occasions.
At first, I thought I was somewhat cheating myself of wearing beautiful colours daily but that was until I learned that Dita von Teese has the signature look that she perfected over the years and wears every day.
When you have a pressing goal that needs to be accomplished, you have no time to experiment. In her book, “Your Beauty Mark: The Ultimate Guide to Eccentric Glamour,” Dita von Teese in a section titled ‘Glam by the Minute’ outlines a polished look that can be done in either five, ten, fifteen or twenty minutes. Prioritize what is important to your beauty routine and stick with that.
2. Cut out “dead” space
Don’t spend your valuable time absorbing content that does nothing to enhance your life or contribute to accomplishing the tasks you set out for yourself.
I am not saying that you should get rid of all entertainment from your life, we all need a break at times.
However, you should consider the amount of time that is spent watching silly forwarded videos on your phone or on the internet, for example.
Decide which would benefit you more, to watch another cat meme or knock off something on your to-do list. If at the end of a productive day, you feel the need to indulge, then carve out a time to do so and be selective with your consumption.
This also applies to watching television.
3. Don’t allow people to take over your time with things that are not important.
For example, you may have a friend that calls you faithfully every single morning just after 9 am for some friendly banter or you may have to listen to stories about their escapades the night before, what they had for breakfast or how much they really want to purchase the new Ed Sheeran album.
I know from personal experience that time spent chatting on the phone, even if decided beforehand that only 10 minutes would be spent on the conversation, can quickly turn into an hour or more. Then you look at the clock and wonder where all that time went.
Instead, put your phone on silent or vibrate while you work. Some models of smartphones have a ‘Do Not Disturb’ feature which allows important calls in from certain people or if a person calls you in succession as they may be desperately trying to reach you.
Otherwise, let your text messaging and voicemail collect your messages and you can return calls and respond to messages when you are finished with your work.
4. Start making lists/ become a planner.
Making lists can help to keep you organized and better able to manage yourself and your time.
Get yourself a diary, notebook or journal or use your phone and every night before bed make a list of things that are to get done the following day.
Write your list in order of priority and the most important task should be done first.
A grocery list, for example, can go a long way in helping to keep organized where you do not get carried away buying things out of your budget or spend unnecessary time at the grocery store that could be used being productive in other areas.
Lists help me stay organized in the smallest of ways. I usually keep a running list of things to research online. If there is something I have to look up like a review for a product that I have been thinking about buying, I can use a smartphone or other portable device and search for a review video on YouTube that I can look at while I prepare a meal. This way I can cross off more than one thing off my list.
5. Remove as many distractions as possible.
We live in a world that is full of distractions. There are always things to see, things to do and lots of entertainment everywhere.
My smartphone is always sending me the latest tech, celebrity and world news on a regular basis. Sometimes I forget a notification for an app that would prompt me that there’s a new message or a new update, or new video on YouTube or something else of that nature.
A lot of these we have the option to change the settings if we do not want to be constantly bombarded with notifications. Do not get carried away checking every single message that comes in from on your phone or in your inbox, reading the latest celebrity news that pops up or even indulging in every single news headline that comes your way.
If you want to have more time and focus on your goals then you need to remove these distractions from your life.
Set aside a particular time and amount of time (20 minutes for example) to check your emails and deal with any incoming notifications that you may need on your devices.
6. Simplify your wardrobe
I have always admired the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, wearing essentially the same style of clothes every day like a uniform.
I personally I found this to be a fantastic way to save time. First of all, having a personal uniform, I never have to wonder what to wear or spend time in the evenings planning my outfit for the next day. On mornings I can just go through my daily grooming routine, put on what makes me feel confident and comfortable and I’m ready to be productive.
Gone are the days when I would spend hours looking for something to wear, put it on, change my mind, take it off, try on something else- this wasted quite a lot of time and was always a frustrating and stressful experience.
Having a capsule or minimalist wardrobe is another way to simplify your clothing selection process.
7. Early to bed, early to rise.
If your lifestyle allows for it, go to bed as early as you can. Early enough to allow yourself to be up by 4 or 5 a.m., having had sufficient sleep. You can use this time to achieve tasks that require peace and quiet which is usually in abundance at this time in the morning when most people are still in dreamland.
Activities such as meditation, exercise, reading, writing, studying, goal setting, planning, and meal preparation are activities that you can pursue at this time.
Distractions are rare and it is hardly likely that people will be sending you messages, silly videos or calling you at this hour. Not to mention that your brain is usually freshest early in the morning after a good night’s sleep and you may be mentally in a better place to get more done.
8. Stop mindlessly snacking.
Mindlessly is the operative word here. This does not apply if there is a medical reason to have small snacks in between meals.
I have certainly been guilty of mindlessly snacking in the past. Especially at work, I would always pack various snacks to have throughout the day and kept a stash in my locker. There really was no reason for the snacks, I think it was just part of the norm (everyone was doing it).
I would have breakfast, lunch and pack something to snack on just in case I was hungry. The thing is, there were instances when I was not really hungry but still stopped what I was doing to go have something to eat. This took time to leave what I was doing, prepare or take out the snack and then of course to eat.
Once I took stock of this behaviour and made a conscious effort to stop it, not only did it contribute positively to my waistline, but I realized that I spent quite a lot of time just snacking.
If this is something that you do, monitor the behaviour and determine if it is something that you do only out of habit that may not be serving you positively.
I hope that you found some tip in this post that you can tailor to suit your needs when it comes to freeing up more time in your day.
Feel free to share any tips that you may have on this topic.
Stay motivated!
Mandy
