A different perspective on time + efficiency
I am super excited to share some tips and tricks when it comes to time management. It’s something I have always been really good at naturally and something I think I do pretty dang well. I get asked all the time how do I manage it all? Social life, Pure Barre, Nespresso, Skin Owl, nannying, travel, blog stuff, and just being in my own life. Honestly it’s not easy. My days are planned out all the time or I at least have a pretty good idea of how most weeks will go. I am practicing how to leave more room for adventure and spontaneity (i’m really bad at this) it’s why I have friends and people in my life who help me connect to that side of me. All of it is important and you need to find a balance that works for you. We all prioritize things in our lives differently which is totally okay! Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do it one way or another. My goal here is to get you thinking of where you want to be spending your time and then correlating this back to your goals and intentions with life. I think when you can find your version of a healthy hustle, life becomes an easy flow and you leave more time to just enjoy it without this crippling feeling that there isn’t enough time.
Okay first and foremost you have to know your why. I know this probably makes no sense to you but why are you trying to do the things you are doing? Why is being efficient with your time important? Are you trying to accomplish something? Typically the answer here is yes. For me I like to be efficient with my time because I need to be productive otherwise the lifestyle I want and the #dreamlife I want isn’t going to happen. I want to create so that I can pour more of my time into helping others by doing this. For example I recently quit one of my jobs. Something I was so fearful to do because it’s a chunk of my monthly income I won’t have anymore BUT I knew if I didn’t start to make time in my weeks (even though it’s small) I would never really give myself the time to do the thing that I want most. I needed to also trust my ability to provide for myself (sometimes I wonder to be honest lol). It’s scary to create and have a vision but not totally know how it’s gong to happen I mean that’s a road I am willing to take because I know my drive and work ethic. So it might be abstract thinking to approach time this way but honestly why do we do anything? There’s a deeper meaning other than the materialistic plane of life and I think identifying this is really important because then your time becomes even more valuable to you. It starts to be about something more than just the time we have in a day. It’s the time you spend doing life. Ya feel?
Alright, so you’ve figured out your why… maybe it’s so you can see your friends more, workout more, cook more, see your child more, travel more, pick up a new hobby, build a business, network. Whatever it is (or maybe it’s all of the above) start to dissect your days. Where in your days do you have time but you claim you don’t? We all make the excuse that we don’t have time. Well if you want something bad enough you will make time end of story. Going into this new year I dissected my days and I will be the first to admit as much as my passion project is something I want, I got lazy on the time dedicated to it. I chose to watch tv over writing. I hear myself saying I want to read more but then scroll instagram. I let little things like that take up more of my time than I should. It’s a habit I needed to break and so I started to be more mindful of my time spent on all of this. Now i’m not saying get rid of these vices, you do you. We all need a mental break from time to time, but reframing your mindset and approaching things differently makes a big change. When it comes to time management it’s usually because you are trying to change habits that are not fulfilling you, into a life that feels more fulfilled. Right?
By now I hope your brain is toggling with ideas and realizing where you might be with all of it. Maybe you are realizing well shoot yeah I can be better here or I don’t even know why i’m doing what i’m doing. It may have brought stuff up for you and that’s OKAY! It’s actually really great to be in this space just don’t be your worst enemy. It’s a lot of work to reframe the mindset and change your habits butttt I promise you will love what you create just stick to it. Start small here with this next step.
Take the thing you are wanting to do more of now and compare it to the things you have to do. If we lived in a world where we could do as we please all the time wouldn’t that be great, but let’s be real we have jobs and need to make a living. This is where it gets a little tricky because to some degree we are obligated to x amount of time spent on the job part in a day. Some people have a really bad relationship with work so unless this is truly your end all be all goal in life is to be a workhorse…so be it this is not for you, but if you’re still reading pay attention here. You need to break up with this idea that success is defined by the amount of time you spend working. I promise you this is far from the reality because if this was the reality you wouldn’t be trying to find the time to do things that make you happier. You probably wouldn’t work as hard if someone told you hey you can have both success and a balanced work life, one that doesn’t require you to strain yourself on the daily. I know crazy right? If a small part of you didn’t believe this was possible you wouldn’t be here reflecting. I get it if you think this way. I have been there.
Now I got off track a little but the time you need to spend in a day on things you have to do… like work, your commute, eating, sleep etc. You get the gist get pretty specific on this. It’s bananas when you look at the things you have to do in a day because a lot is “busyness” that skews our view of time. So for me my list has become pretty small:
-Work (Nespresso daily 8 hours, Pure Barre 4 hours of my week on two days)
-Lunch + dinner ( hour of my day every day)
-6 hours of sleep minimum ideally I want 9 but i’ll get there haha
So about 17 hours of my day is spent on the necessities to live as a human being with work, eating, and sleep. Which means I have 7 hours of my day totally open. Granted majority of this is before work time or after work time and this is where efficiency is important.
So circle back to that why… for me the following things help me get to my why. It helps my creative energy and if you know me or have followed it’s of course wellness related so it’s good for the mind, body, and spirit. I value time to myself A LOT. It allows me the space to drown out the noise around me and get clear on what I want. This is always evolving but I think of it as simple personal development time. That could be meditation, reading things that expand my knowledge, networking, etc.
This would be my list of things I want to make more time for
-Personal development (meditation, workshops, reading I kind of lump this all in together) 45 minutes of my day at least. Ideally 4 times a week
-Social media 1.5 hours in a day with what i’m trying to do. I know this is a part of my day more than most but that was a limit I found fair for personal usage and blog usage
-The relationships in my life ***most important and I don’t put a time constraint on this***
-Working out 3-4 x a week 1 hour of time
I think you have a pretty decent idea now that about 3 more hours of my day would be dedicated to this kind of stuff and you still want to leave yourself room to just mentally check out from time to time. A mental break is crucial because of your overall well being. Let your brain just be sometimes. It needs it because your body needs it, your body needs it because if your body’s system is out of whack you won’t feel your best self. You get brain fog, chronic fatigue, mood swings, acne, weight gain, insomnia and so on. Your well being is important to time because how can you efficiently do any of this if your body isn’t in it’s best shape to do so.
Although that’s a lot to digest this is also a matter of reframing the mindset and letting go of the control you currently have. It’s an uncomfortable process because for most people it will bring up insecurities. I don’t know how else to put it but you can only change for the better if you give up the idea of what your life is supposed to be. You need to allow yourself the space for that growth and let go of what you know just a little bit. When people ask me how I do it, it’s because I realized I was getting in my own way because I had too many rules on what my life was supposed to look like, instead of actually living it from a heart centered space. What I mean by heart centered is living life by the things that make me feel whole, putting that first and letting success be a byproduct of what I am doing. I still have a long way to go before I am living the most successful version of my life, but I also don’t kill myself with negative thoughts that where i’m at isn’t enough. Essentially if something happened where I couldn’t keep going with my goals and so on I would be pretty damn happy with where i’m at to live a pretty full life. This is why when it comes to the time you spend doing things in your life is a deeply buried feeling of what makes you feel whole. We want time to really live and our reason for living is far greater than any of us can probably put into words. At the end of the day we all want connection, success, and to be valued for who we are. It’s pretty simple but we put this constraint on the time we have because we are too far in the future. Oh gosh I was the worst at this so when I say it’s possible to do more I mean it from experience.
To boil it down for those of you that maybe need concrete to do’s with this think of your why first and second invest in some sort of planner/calendar and time keeper. I personally use a Passion Planner which you can find here. I love this one because it combines everything I said above + allows you to map out your weeks and months and break things down into priority for both personal and work. I highly recommend checking it out. At the beginning if give you the chance to set a passion road map where you really think about all your life goals and then get real specific on timelines and how you are going to do it. It’s so fun to take 5-10 minutes and just let yourself see the big picture for your life. I believe writing this out is so much more effective than just saying it. Seeing is believing after all! At the end of each month it also gives you a reflection moment where you can break down what you liked about the month, what you wish you did more of, and how you felt about your goals that month. It’s a great tool to check in with yourself at the end of each month. During the weeks section they also give random fun things to do or motivational advice to get you further along. I’m about it all!!
The other tool I utilize a lot is google calendar. This allows me to set appointments, reminders, locations, etc and color code it all so it helps keep track of the things I need to do. I have it linked to my iphone so that I get a reminder for appointments/ events etc. a week in advance, the day before, and then 4, 2, and 1 hour before so I don’t miss things. This helps keep me accountable. I do this with my personal and self-care goals as well in my planner. If I made a date with myself I do my very best to keep it. It’s how you build consistency and habits :)
Okay so that is a lot to digest I know. I hope in some way it helps. Let me tell you practice practice practice and don’t lose sight of your WHY in life. It’s what will drive you forward. The idea behind this time management piece is to bridge the mind, body, and spirit. You have to want to change your ways if you get anywhere. I actually plan to create a 1-1 program to help people achieve more using the 3 pillars of mind, body, and spirit to help you get further along so stay tuned! If interested definitely reach out! I would love to help you in any way I can.
Xo,
Shay
