4 Tips to Find More Time

WHEN I GET AROUND TO IT, I NEED TO (insert mundane task that you’ve been putting off here)

Well, here’s your round tuit!

It’s time to face it. You will never “find more time”. We all have the same 24 hours every day. Stop wasting your time looking for extra time and use what you have more productively. There is no extra.

OK, if you want to get technical, most days are just slightly longer than 24 hours. According to TimeAndDate.com, today for example, is 24 hours and 1.17 milliseconds long.

Hey, look! I found more time today. Now, I have to decide what to do with my extra 1.17 ms.

Anyway, here’s a couple of great time-saving tips for you.

1. Put down your phone
2. Put down your tablet
3. Turn off your computer
4. Turn off your TV

Seeing a pattern here?

Far more often than I’d like to admit, I catch myself scrolling mindlessly through Facebook or Twitter reading pointless nonsense about what someone that I haven’t seen in 20 years had for dinner that day. Eventually, I snap out of my daze and realize I should be getting some needed sleep or actually having a face-to-face conversation with someone.

The worst is when I realize I’m staring at my phone while my wife or one of my kids is trying to talk to me. Then I feel terrible when I realize I haven’t been listening to anything they’ve said.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy social media to keep up with friends and family all over the country. Since we don’t live near any family, we put pictures of my kids up for both sides of the family to see on Facebook. It’s also about the only way that I could keep in touch with all of my friends from the Army scattered all over the world. Not to mention the Facebook garage sale groups where we’ve unloaded a bunch of things.

There’s a time and place though and you need to find a good balance. Time management experts (I’m not one), recommend setting aside time specifically for things like checking email and social media. Decide how much time you need and stick to it. Another recommendation is to not even have apps like Facebook and Twitter installed on your phone. This will force you to at least sit down intentionally in front of a computer when you want to spend time on them.

I hope you haven’t found reading this a waste of your time. If you’re looking for more time management tips check out the links below.

• Too Much to Do, Not Enough Time from Zen Habits
• Create Time to Change Your Life also from Zen Habits
• A Helpful Guide to Becoming Unbusy from Becoming Minimalist
• Time Management Secrets of Ultra Performers, a podcast interview by Jeff Goins with Rory Vaden

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