Secret to Gaining More Time in Your Day
Let me ask you a question - What's your most limited resource? My go-to answer is always, time. Whether it's the years we're given or the hours we have in a given day, our time is our most precious resource because we can’t make more of it nor get back time that’s passed.
Given the importance of time, and how we all feel it’s passing us by at a rapid pace, I want to dig into a topic near and dear to my heart, which is repurposing time. I believe repurposing the time we have is an untapped secret to feel as though we’re able to generate more time each day. If this sounds too good to be true, stick with me, it’s much simpler than you may think. I’ll break it down in a simple and actionable way, so you can start putting these practices to work in your own life today.
First off, let me be clear I'm not asking you to multi-task. I’m here to tell you that multi-tasking is the fast track to burnout and disappointment. I can say this in all sincerity because for the majority of my life I’ve prided myself on my ability to multi-task. I could juggle tasks, especially at work with ease and efficiency. I actually prided myself upon this “skill” for a long time. Slowly that feeling of success started unravelling and instead of feeling ultra-productive I felt stressed out and constantly disappointed and defeated. If you want to do something well it deserves your full attention, brain power and heart, so this life-long multi-tasker has changed her tune and it’s now single-tasking all the way! So are we all clear? Moral of the story is, there’s a big difference between repurposing time and trying to juggle 5 things at once - one sets you up for joy and fulfillment and the other for failure and stress.
Now let’s dig into understanding repurposing your time, what this means and how to achieve it in your busy life. The idea of repurposing your time is to infuse more joy and satisfaction in the tasks that consume our daily lives. There are inherent times in the day when we have tasks that have to be completed. For an example let’s say a morning commute to work. This is a part of the day that has to happen, but there’s room within this task to infuse joy and make it more enjoyable.
The key to repurposing time can be broken down in a few steps. My mind thinks in bulleted lists, so here’s my run down of 4 simple steps:
Start by determining your values, and considering what's most important to you.
Use those values as guidance for what to add into existing blocks of time.
Ask yourself “what do you wish you could do more of that you never seem to fit into the day?” and that’s your starting place for what to add into your day.
Lastly take an honest look at your schedule. Look for times in the day when your full attention is required, and times when you may be able to add more of your values into the task. Consider making time-blocks of your "ideal day" to structure your mind around what you need and want to have happen.
We’re going to spend the next few weeks digging deeper into this idea of repurposing time, so you can know and understand how to apply it to your own life. As a preview, for the next few blog posts I’m going to let you behind the scenes of my life to share first hand how I put the concept of repurposing time into play. I want you to have confidence knowing that I practice what I preach, and there’s no better way than to be transparent and honest, and share my tried and true practices with you.