What’s More Valuable: Time or a Pot of Gold?

By Becca Froh                                                                                                

Imagine U Academy   

                                                                                   

 

We all have 24 hours in a day. Some people do amazing things with that precious time. Other people complain of being bored. First of all, if you’re ever bored, come to me. I have a list you can work on (HAH!)

Time is the one resource we cannot make more of, cannot return or exchange, and  can’t purchase more to store for an emergency. Most importantly, it’s the one resource that helps us to get all other vital resources. Time is so precious, and it goes so fast. Most people wish they had more of it, and we’ve spent decades trying to crack the code to managing time and accomplishing more than we have historically.

Spoiler Alert: You CANNOT Manage Time! Time is a construct made by humans, for the purpose of keeping a society going.

You CAN, however, use the time you have in a better way! You may have heard of time boxing, time blocking, first in first out, urgent v important, GTD, and maybe, just maybe, you remember Franklin Covey planners. If you’re old enough to remember the smell of a new Franklin planner (it smelled like leather, paper, and hope), this is your reminder to take some Ibuprofen 😉

Unless you have a rocket ticket and are ready to jet off to the cosmos looking for a planet with longer days, or you’ve invented a time machine…. You’ll have to develop a strategy for getting things accomplished while also preventing burnout. This is a personal process for everyone, but we do have some tips to help ease the pain!

1.     Start the Night Before

Lay out everything you’ll need for the morning. The family’s clothes, set the coffee timer, pack lunches, and before bed, make sure your keys, glasses, wallet, and watch are together next to your clothes. Charge your phone and double check your alarm volume. Review your schedule for the following day and make a note of the most important thing you need to accomplish. Gather all you need for the most important task then block time on your calendar during your peak energy period to work on that task.

2.     Wake up 30 minutes earlier (A full hour if you can)

Do NOT use this time to scroll socials or check email. Don’t even check your notifications for the first 30 minutes.

This is YOUR time; the rest of the world can wait. Journal, draw, do yoga, meditate, go for a run, or read 10 pages of a book. Then, go outside, even for a few seconds; getting sunlight when you first wake up helps to keep your circadian rhythm in balance. Don’t you dare feel guilty for this time; you must put your own oxygen mask on first.

Make your bed. That’s right. Do it.

Once you’ve started your day with selfcare, make the bed and set a positive intention for the day ahead. That intention is tucked safely into your bed, like a seed ready to sprout in spring.

Not naturally a morning person? That’s ok, you can become one! Of course, this is easier said than done. If this is you, try building up to the full hour by setting your alarm for five minutes earlier each morning. This is a small change but will soon result in you rising an hour earlier. Adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night- and NO ONE is immune to this! Get that beauty rest; the dreams will give you a topic to journal about 😉.

3.     Batch the work that makes sense

What’s batching? Doing several of the same or similar tasks in one chunk of time, while not focusing on anything else. Examples might be replying to emails, cleaning out your inbox, scheduling social media posts, returning phone calls or making appointments, or running errands.

At home, this can look like cleaning all the same “type” of item at once. While you have the vacuum out, vacuum floors, stairs, furniture, and look for corners with crumbs or cobwebs- suck those bad boys up! If you’re wiping counters, quickly wipe other surfaces as well. A great guideline is that you should batch items that take a minute or two. If you schedule an hour for batching, you can make a significant dent in your “busy work”.

Can’t stay motivated? Make it a game! How many spam emails can you clear in 5 minutes? How long does it take to reorganize your OneDrive folders? Like Baz Luhrmann said

“The race is long. In the end, it’s only with yourself”.

4.     Work with Your Energy

            Your energy patterns are unique and can change over time. Check in with yourself

            and consider how your energy waxes and wanes throughout the day. Save mundane

            tasks and batching for low energy periods, while saving your best and brightest hours

            for brain intensive work. Projects that are complex or require creativity turn out much

            better if you can jumpstart your system into Flow State. The Academy is launching a

            class on getting into Flow soon…. Stay tuned!

5.     Stop Lying to Yourself

If it takes you an hour to get your family ready and out the door, you cannot squeeze that into 20 minutes. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Allow appropriate time.

Similarly…. Multitasking is not a thing. Your brain can *very* quickly switch between tasks, but you’re switching your attention, not paying attention to multiple things at once. It’s ok to do one thing at a time. It’s ok to take a little longer to get something done, as long as it’s done right (and on deadline). Focus on one task at a time. You’ll be calmer and your relationships might even improve- bonus!

6.     Limit Social Media by Using a Timer

No more thoughtless scrolling for you! Before you open any social apps, decide what it is you want to accomplish- are you trying to grow your following or just checking up on your feed to see what’s new? If there is a productive reason to be on socials, schedule that time appropriately. Make it a task you put on your calendar. If you’re mindlessly scrolling or checking up on that one messy friend from high school, you get 5 minutes. While social media has benefits including helping people stay in touch- there is also a lot of “yuck” on the sites. If you don’t feel happier after scrolling…. Stop scrolling and do something that DOES make you happy. You will be infinitely more productive if you’re in a positive mind state.

7.     Accept That You CANNOT Manage Time

But you CAN manage your productivity. Set yourself up for success. What does your desk look like? How long does it take you to find a pen? Do you have everything you need to accomplish the tasks at hand? Before you sit down to focus on a task, check in with yourself to determine your needs and your current state. Are you wired? Tired? Content? Feeling down? Do you need the restroom? Have plenty of coffee, water, and healthy snacks on hand. Set your workspace up so you have everything you might need within arms’ reach, you know where things are, and you can prepare yourself to sit for around two hours in a flow state (or longer if you can!)

8.     Determine Where and How You Could Use Time Better

          For a full 7 days, track what you do every minute of the day. Sound tedious?

          Maybe…. But if you can’t see a problem, how can you solve it?

Use physical paper and pen for this tracking exercise.

          Why? To eliminate distractions. If you start to record something in your phone           and are inundated with notifications you can easily forget what you were                 doing- this cycle is very common, and equally frustrating. Put it on paper; at    the end of the week, give it an honest review. Are you surprised? I sure was!       Who knew a person could spend so much time in Sim City?!  Oops!

I now set a timer to keep my gaming in check.

9.     Learn to Say “No”

          You don’t have to be available to people 24/7. Nor is that a healthy

          expectation. Carefully review your commitments. Now review your short and

          long-term goals. Are these commitments helping you to achieve those goals?

It’s time to begin unapologetically spending your time, energy, and other

resources on activities that will help you reach your vision of your ideal future.

          If it doesn’t make you happy and doesn’t align with your goals, consider this

          your permission slip to get out of those commitments.

10. Schedule Your Day- and Stick to it

          While changing your habits, schedule your entire day 12:00 am to

          11:59 pm. Set aside 30 minutes in the evening to plan the following day. The

          30 minutes first thing and last thing are bookends to a productive day. A

          productive day becomes a productive life.

A productive life makes you feel as if you have control over this crazy construct called TIME.

          When tracking, reviewing, and planning your time, the goal is progress, not     perfection. You have to be honest with yourself during this process.

          When you track your time, list your self-care, schedule your day, that’s for      you- not your partner, kids, or boss. No one else needs to see it.

If you’re not able to be honest with yourself, who CAN you be honest with?

Jot down multiple strategies you can use to save time, then choose a new strategy for tackling your to do list, based on how you’re feeling on a particular day. If you listen to your body, you are kind to your mind, and you give your spirit some much needed grace, you’ll be able to calmly whip through your to do list in time to hit the discounted appetizers at your favorite Irish Pub.

In Service,

Becca