Freeing up Your Time: A Simple Guide
If there’s an important new project that you’d like to take on but you’re so tightly entangled in your web of existing commitments that you just can’t see how it’s possible, read on!
In this blog we are going to show you how freeing up time to take on a new project is not only possible, but essential if we are going to keep things fresh and growing and avoid succumbing to the stagnation of the daily grind.
We’ve compiled 5 strategies and 3 weapons for you to implement to free up your time.
Let’s get started.
It can be tricky to see how we can reclaim time. We often stay wedded to our ‘burn-out busyness’ for emotional reasons.
Notice how, at the mere thought of trimming back commitments, a whole host of assumptions spring up to discourage us. Things like:
“Wouldn’t it involve disappointing other people? Letting others down?”
or, “If I’m not flat out I’m not shouldering my share.”
or, another popular one: “But people see me as a helpful person, I see me as a helpful person and that’s the one thing I know I’ve got going for me.”
There’s also the fact that in a funny way, ceaselessly surfing the never-ending tide of tasks can be rewarding. We get those little dopamine hits along the way as we plough on through. We get to feel like we’re useful and therefore important, we also get to artfully avoid getting in contact with ourselves and the questions of whether we are experiencing enough meaning, value and satisfaction in our lives.
Being busy is a superb deflection from some of the things that matter the most. But it comes at a cost.
Being busy can mean that:
We spend much of our precious life in a reactive, mechanical mode rather than in a creative, exploratory one.
We normalise pathological levels of stress, and our health suffers.
We wish that we could spend more time being present with loved ones.
We never get to discover even half of our infinite potential as a human being on planet earth.
Intentionally freeing up time to take on a new project or to spend time on the things that truly matter is a duty that we owe to ourselves and to other people.
The point of life is that, despite the inevitable suffering, we spend as much of it as we can
a) achieving.
and
b) enjoying.
This way fulfilment lies, and this way contribution lies too because when we feel fulfilled, we become more generous. We add more value to those around us.
If you could free up enough time to get an hour back every workday, what would you do with it?
5 hours a week.
= 20 hours a month
= thirty eight-hour work days a year.
With that sort of time on your hands, what more could you achieve? What more could you enjoy? If you were even just 5% more productive and focused, where would that take you and how different might life feel?
And… How do we make this possible?
Applying any one of the five strategies for freeing up time we share with you in this post (or using them in combination) will deliver you that 20-hour-a-month dividend to take on a new project or devote to what matters most.
But before the strategies, some ideas for new projects…
Do any of these spark excitement in you?
Adding to your professional skill set or qualifications for a career progression or career pivot.
Instigating and leading on an important new project for your organisation.
Making your home into an environment that you and others love to spend time in.
Fitting in extra paid work to meet ambitious saving targets that will build material security into your future.
Having the study time to become an expert in a niche area of your work.
Learning Japanese.
Working on your physical and mental fitness.
Learning the guitar.
Spotting opportunities to become a better friend/partner/colleague/family member.
Spending time with an isolated older person in your neighbourhood.
Because human potential is limitless we will cap the list at 10 and let you take it from there!
Creating more time in your life is not a one-size-fits-all magic bullet. For this to work, you’ll need to be patient and methodical. We suggest trying each tip out to discover which one/s work best for you.
Onto the strategies!
Strategy 1: Set big goals and write them down.
A goal that is written down is statistically more likely to be achieved, according to Gail Matthew’s research.
A goal is nothing but a specific desire. All growth and all of life are driven by desire, from a single-cell organism developing motility because it desires nutrients to Elon Musk's desiring human habitation on Mars.
So when you are articulating your goal, you can view it as an act of harnessing lifeforce itself and once you have got started it becomes self-perpetuating.
Each goal that we accomplish paves the way to new and more challenging goals. In this process, we refine our abilities, develop new awarenesses, forge new relationships and construct new habits. We naturally carry all of these resources forward with us, as we continue onwards and upwards.
So what is your most important professional goal?
What is your most important personal goal?
Write them down today. Be as specific as you can, and make sure they are measurable. ie. When those goals are accomplished, it will be obvious.
Strategy 2: Set yourself up to succeed every evening with a daily priority jobs to-do list.
As part of your evening routine, prioritise and write down the 3-5 most important things you want to accomplish the next day, and then number them according to priority.
Entering the new work day with clarity minimises dithering and distraction, and avoids wasting forty minutes ‘easing in, picking and planning’. You’ll be starting the day with on-point energy, you’ll make the whole day more focused and productive.
And very importantly: tackle one thing on that list at a time. Take a break if you need it, but don’t move on to the next task until the first one is done. Any tasks not finished that day can be rolled over when you draw your next evening list.
Using this approach you will notice a greater sense of positive focus, progress and satisfaction each day.
This is your daily priority jobs to-do list, always written the evening before, and not to be confused with your master list.
Strategy 3: Master your Master List.
If there are more than 10 things on your To Do list, then it is not a To Do list. It’s a Master List.
To ensure focus and effective prioritisation, keep your To-do list and Master Lists separate.
Each evening you can consider which items you want to move from your Master List to your To Do list. That’s the only time the two lists should interact.
What goes on your Master List?
EVERYTHING. All responsibilities, and everything you want to achieve and enjoy in your personal and professional life in the short, medium and long term go on that list.
Have you got a master list? If not, write one today. You might find the thought of writing EVERYTHING you need and want to do down in one place, but it is an essential step to take if you are serious about freeing up time.
Strategy 4: It’s Important to Know What’s Important (Become a Box 2 Person)
We love the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, it’s an excellent tool for sifting through tasks:
This tool is all about working out what’s urgent and what’s important.
Not all urgent things are important and not all important things are urgent but we often get them confused.
Urgency is quite measurable, if a deadline is 1 day away that equals ten out of ten urgent.
Importance, though, is more subjective. Something’s important if it progresses you towards a meaningful goal. So taking the bins out on bin day is important, but won’t mean much to you when you look back on your life.
Of course, sometimes important things are also urgent, sometimes ‘Box 1’ items happen, like meeting a deadline before your appraisal when you want a promotion.
They’re unavoidable at times, but having too many things in Box 1, too much of the time is a nightmare: they all need doing now and you can’t do them all at once. Stress and overwhelm beckon.
The name of the game, then, is to spend as much time in Box 2 as possible.
Time spent planning, scheduling and prioritising important tasks means that fewer Box 1s happen. With box 2 items, you’re ensuring all the systems and processes are in place to attend to the important things effectively and ahead of time before they become emergencies. We spare ourselves a lot of stress as well as successfully freeing up time.
And the only way we can spend more time in Box 2 is to spend less time in Box 3.
Box 3s are all those treading water tasks that don’t progress us but suck up so much of our time.
When you have a day when you have been busy, busy, busy like a hamster on a wheel, and you get to the end of the day, worn out, and look back on it and think ‘I’ve accomplished nothing today! Where did the time go?’ That means you’ve spent most of your day in Box 3.
Our mission here is to fight back against box 3 and prevent it from devouring too much of our time.
Here are some great weapons in the armoury that we can use:
Weapon 1: We can create more efficient systems and processes.
Usually, when we look, there are routine admin tasks that could be better systematised. Done in chunks and bundles instead of scattered throughout the week.
Or, for instance, if you are replying to a tonne of emails each week giving the same information, could the queries be directed to an FAQ instead?
Or if you are interrupting your workflow multiple times a day to respond to email and message notifications, could you turn off your notifications or even log out of your emails, only checking them in a designated window in your day?
And when it comes to responding, you could apply the 2-minute rule: if the response takes less than 2 minutes, do it now. If not, onto the master list it goes.
Weapon 2: We can say ‘No’.
Although this feels uncomfortable, especially to the agreeable types among us, look at it this way: when we automatically say ‘Yes’ to one thing we are de facto saying ‘No’ to a hundred other things that might well matter more to us.
We will never have the space we need to take on a new project of great personal meaning to us if we keep chipping away at our time with endless little ‘Yeses’.
The phrase: “I’m sorry no, I’ve got some important things I need to do” gets easier to say with practice.
At this point, if emotional insecurities rear up their neurotic little heads and tell you that you’ll be frowned upon and letting others down, remind them that you are not the indispensable centre of the world that holds everyone else’s stuff together.
Weapon 3: We can negotiate.
This is a partial ‘No’. If I can’t attend in person but I can join remotely, I save myself an hour of travel time.
If I can’t attend the whole afternoon event but I can make it for the last hour, that’s three hours for important things I have bagged.
Free up time by stealth.
Weapon 4: We can delegate.
Ask yourself ‘Who could do this?’
Who’s got the know-how, and whose strengths would it play to? Who’d be better at it than you and do it faster? When you look at your Master List, hold these questions in mind.
Having the courage to delegate projects or tasks is a direct route to freeing up time to take on a new project, and to do the things you are best at and excite you.
Two key things to note are that it’s important to delegate to the right person and to offer the right level of guidance and support to those you delegate to.
Perfectionism is the enemy of delegation.
There is such a thing as ‘good enough’, especially if someone is new to the task. Whether it is a virtual assistant, a spouse or someone mowing your lawn. Ask yourself if you were ill for the next six weeks, who would be best placed to pick up certain tasks?
Strategy 5: Eliminate it.
Before we wrap up this blog, we need to talk about Box 4. This is where we put the things that are not important and not urgent.
Giving our attention to stuff that is not important or urgent is a great way to waste our lives and make us never become Box 2 people. But if you want to have the time to take on a new project then you must become a Box 2 person.
Keep an activity log of how you spend your time for a week and of each item ask whether it is important or urgent. You will be amazed at how much stuff is neither.
If box 4 stuff is cluttering up your life, robbing your time and giving you nothing in return. Get rid of it.
Don’t waste time.
Only you will know what matters to you, so use your instincts to decide what you do with all the extra hours that you’ve won back by skilfully freeing up time.
By eliminating this wasted time, you could:
Create one day a month to stare into space and strategies to get clearer about where you want to go.
Have a couple of hours a week to devote to growing your professional network in a focused, meaningful way
Be able to take on a new project. It could be something you have been dreaming of for years, but putting off. Or it could be an exciting new opportunity that has come your way that you would like to seize.
Spend an afternoon each week giving additional one-to-one mentoring and support to peers who are experiencing challenges
You could even be able to go home a bit earlier one day a week to enjoy your family/garden/cat/dog/hobby.
Maybe all these things and others besides. You decide.
As you spend more time achieving and enjoying and less time fighting fires on the hamster wheel, you might notice your mindset starting to shift, with new ideas about what is important to you coming through and new directions beckoning.
Getting to this lovely hilltop view only requires one thing, that you…
Commit with Accountability.
Never underestimate the power of old habits. Tell a friend, boss, colleague, partner or coach about what you’re doing. Tell them that you plan to take on a new project by freeing up time. Tell them why that project matters to you. Tell them how you’re going to make room for it, and the methods you apply.
Explain to them how being accountable will help you, and thank them for that support. Then together agree on a schedule to check in with them, perhaps fortnightly, about your progress and setbacks.
If you do this, you will double the chance of it working.
These check-ins will be an opportunity to reflect on important questions about your progress and act on your answers.
Freeing up time is an important part of life and an ongoing process. Involving other people in that process is just one more way to make it succeed.
One thing to remember
Creating more time in your day is not about adding more hours to the clock but about optimising the use of the time you have.
Consistently applying these tips can help you make the most of your available hours and achieve greater productivity and balance in your life.
Go for it!