If you have more to do than you have time to do it in, you’re not alone. Regardless of how much society advances with new technology that’s supposed to enable us to do more in less time, there never seems to be enough time to do everything that needs to be done.
But what if you could essentially add another hour or two to your day? How would you use that time?
While you can’t actually add time, you can free up additional time with these techniques:
- Eliminate unnecessary tasks. Maybe you just have too many things to do! Take a detailed look at your life and determine if there are any tasks that you’re doing that are simply unnecessary. There are bound to be a few things you can eliminate from your life without suffering any negative impact.
2. Delete social media accounts. Social media platforms can be valuable, but they are also great timewasters. There’s also a lot of evidence that social media use can be harmful to your mental health.
Consider deleting your social media accounts and picking up the phone once in a while to check in on your friends and family the old-fashioned way.
3. Disable notifications. Do you really need to be notified of every text, email, and app activity in real time? Turn all of it off and take a quick peek every few hours to see if you’re missing something important.
4. Avoid perfection. Some tasks require a high level of attention. Others do not. It’s not necessary to clean out your closet with the same level of perfection as a surgeon performing a liver transplant. Ask yourself how well a task really needs to be done and perform it at an appropriate level of effort and detail.
5. Ask yourself how you can do this task better and faster. Are you sure you’re taking the best route to work? Are you cleaning your house efficiently? Think about every task you do on a regular basis and search for a more efficient way of doing it.
6. Outsource. It’s possible to outsource much of your life. No one can eat, sleep, or exercise for you, but you can pay others to do a lot of things for you.
There are people that will clean, do laundry, mow grass, drive, shop, cook, do your taxes, and build your new deck for you.
You might even have a partner or children that can carry some of your load.
7. Schedule your day. A decent plan is lightyears better than no plan at all. Think about what you need to accomplish and make a list. Stick to your list and you’re bound to get more done in less time each day.
8. Track your time. Where are you wasting time? How are you spending all of your time? You might be surprised where your time is going if you’ve never taken a hard look at it.
Spend a couple of days logging your tasks and how much time you spend on them. Pay particular attention to the time spent on electronic devices and other amusing activities.
9. Consider your mealtimes. Eating takes more time than people realize. You have to shop for the food, cook it, eat it, and clean up afterwards. If you eat three meals a day, that’s a lot of time.
Some meals are much quicker than others. A sandwich and an apple eaten on a paper plate is less time and work than roasting a chicken, making mashed potatoes, and washing pots and pans.
Shop for foods that are easy to prepare and have minimal cleanup. Also, shop as infrequently as possible. Each trip to the store can take an hour or more.
Everyone gets the same 24 hours each day to live life. Whether your 24-hour day is easy and carefree or extremely busy, it’s also helpful to find additional time to use as you see fit.
You can’t make a day last longer, but you create additional hours by being more effective, more efficient, and reducing unnecessary tasks and responsibilities.
