Claiming Your Time Back: 4 Ways To Find Extra Hours In The Day
As we move into a new year, the one resource many people want to find is more time. As life becomes busier, you will lose time simply doing what needs to be done, and the struggle to fit everything in becomes a battle you aren't winning.
While everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, not everyone lives the same life, and for some people, those 24 hours may as well be 2 as they become overwhelmed with the amount of things they need to get done each day.
If this sounds familiar, this post is going to look at ways you can free up time in your life to do things you enjoy rather than what you think you need to be doing.
Make An Appointment
You are more likely to complete a task or make time for something if you schedule it like an appointment. Be it making time to go to the gym, catching up with friends, or literally anything else. If you need to make time for it, add it to your schedule like you would a doctor's appointment and make it non-negotiable to carry out. This way, you will be more likely to commit and make it than simply see if you can find the time.
Delegate Tasks
Looking at things you can get others to carry out for you can free up more time than you think. For example, using a cleaning service can give you multiple hours back each week to do other things without letting standards drop at home. Using grocery delivery services means you can reduce the time spent wandering around stores to do your shopping; all you need to do is be in to collect it and put it away. Look at what you can reasonably delegate to other family members or service providers; even meal delivery services can be beneficial, and see how it can work to free up your time.
Turn Off The Phone
The average person spends over 3 hours per day on their phone, and one in five people spends more than four and a half hours using their smartphones. If you want to see how much time you spend online, most smartphones come with a tracker, to tell you how much time you spend online or using your phone. From here, you can commit to putting the phone down more often or only using your phone during certain times. Even if you reduce it by one hour per day, that is 7 hours per week and can give you much more time.
Say No
This is easier said than done for people-pleasers, but saying no to extra tasks that will eat into your time or mean you need to change your already full schedule will stop you from becoming burnt out and taking on too much.
Practice saying no to tasks that don't explicitly need your attention or that you feel others are taking advantage of you with. To avoid being overwhelmed by loading too much on your plate, you need to be assertive and say no respectfully to help you waste time doing things you don't need to be doing. This goes for friends, family members, school parents, committees, work requests, or anything else that isn't essential.
