How to Create More Time in Your Day (A Surprise Twist)

Do you ever wonder how you can get more done within the confines of the 24-hour limit to each day? (Click on image below if you prefer to watch a video rather than read.)

You’re certainly not alone. Personally, I have and still do face this challenge on a regular basis in my ever changing, always full life.

That said, what I do to resolve this is the great news that I have to share with you today!

Let’s get to it!

Although we can’t add additional hours to our 24-hour day, we can however create more space within those same 24 hours in order to work on the things we want to accomplish.

Here’s how.

First, it’s important to realize that the quality and quantity of time we invest towards any goal, must match the goal itself.

For example, a small goal may require small sacrifices and a small amount of time and focus devoted to accomplishing it.

A large goal, on the other hand, will require more time, energy and focus devoted to reaching it.

We must set out to free up enough time, relative to the size of the goal itself.

Another factor that must be considered is the timeline by which we would like to accomplish the goal. How quickly do you want to reach this milestone?

These two considerations should be used to help us determine both the amount of time and the intensity of focus that we must invest each day towards achieving it.

And this amount of time required will obviously determine the amount of space we must create in our current day’s schedule for these new activities.

So how do we create this additional space in our fixed 24-hour day?

There is only one way.

We must be willing to make short-term sacrifices in order to turn our dreams into reality.

One or more of our current activities currently taking up some of our precious, limited and extremely valuable time must be given up (at least temporarily).

Many people can set big goals, but far fewer are willing to cut out current activities that do not serve the achievement of these goals, in exchange for time spent accomplishing their goals.

For Nicole and me, when we launched what I like to call our work-from-phone life transformation business in 2015, we “counted the cost” to determine what short-term sacrifices we were willing to give up, in order to free up time to create success in our business, reach our goals and enjoy a much better future.

For us those short-term sacrifices, among other things, included cutting out essentially all television. It also meant letting go of my perfectionistic desire to have a perfectly organized and showroom looking garage, a perfectly maintained and weed-free yard, and a spotless home office.

Many people think they don’t have extra time but, in my experience, myself included, even the busiest people can create extra time by doing three things - evaluating how they spend all their time, cutting out the time wasters, and counting the cost of all other activities in relation to the potential benefits of using that time instead to create a better future.

I love what a friend once shared with me.

He said, “Why would you want to watch other people live their dreams on television when you could be investing that time into creating your own dreams.”

How are you investing your time? Is it giving you a good return on investment?

Time is a limited resource that we can never get back.

I’d encourage you to spend a few days, up to a week if needed, documenting how you spend your time each day, in 15-minute increments.

This can be very revealing. Be ready to be surprised!

Then, at the end of the week, add up all the time spent that was not moving you closer to your better future, and consider what you can remove from your life, even if just for a short-term period of time, in order to replace that time with activities that will move your closer to your goals and dreams.

In doing so, if you are like me, you may find that after a season of giving something of lesser importance up for something of more significance in your life, you may never care to go back to that activity, even when you have reached your goal and you are able to begin doing so if desired.

Until next time,