Monday Motivation & Career Development – 5 Ways to Find More Time in Your Day

If you’re like me, you spend most of your day running around feeling busy, but at the end of the day you’ve managed to get nothing done! Or maybe, you have more work than you started with. Other people find themselves in meetings all day and still have a lot left to do. You start asking yourself, “Where did all my time go?”

If this sounds familiar here are five practical ways to find more time in your day.

1.) Get Organized

This is the first thing that needs to be accomplished before you can do anything else. Think about all the time you waste looking through papers and/or files when you don’t have an efficient organized system in place.

• Every morning take 10 minutes to organize and prepare your work area for the upcoming task of the day.
• Also, prioritize your to-do list. What needs to be done right away?

2.) Block Off Work Time on Your Calendar

This is the time of day where you spend your time doing the work you need to do with no interruptions. In order to do this you need to find a time of day when you feel most productive, and meetings aren’t usually scheduled. For some people this is first thing in the morning. Other people find the best time is between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm.

If you start to do this regularly the people around you will learn that this time is sacred, and you do not give up this time easily. They will start to schedule meeting and other important task around your work time.

3.) Create a Routine

Maintain a predictable schedule. Your schedule should allow you to do the activities that are most important to you. For some people that is waking up every morning at 5:00 am to read, write, meditate, or work out before heading into work. By creating this predictable schedule you eliminate worries of not achieving your goals.

4.) Delegate

Don’t work harder, work smarter. There are only so hours in a day, and only so many task you can complete with in that day. So take the time to train your direct reports on how to do task for you. Everyone has heard the saying, “If you want something done right, do it yourself,” but think about how easier your life would be if you removed some of those tasks from your daily schedule. Give those tasks to a well trained employee who will do it right for you.

5.) Say “No!”

It’s easy to say “yes,” but it is a lot harder to say “no.” If you are making decisions or attending meetings that other employees should be doing then you’re not doing your job, you’re doing theirs.

Two things are for certain… workloads aren’t getting any lighter, and you can’t change how many hours are in a day. There isn’t a one size fits all strategy when it comes to time management. Implement a strategy that works best for you. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy a more manageable work life!