How to create more TIME in your life
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Back-to-back meetings. Running from one commitment to the next. Life feels too damn scheduled, doesn’t it?! But how do we find more free time?!
it seems like an impossible task! but I’ve got 3 tips that have been game-changers for me…
01. Schedule 15 or 45-minute meetings
If you’re a business owner or a manager, you are in control of your meeting schedule! No no no… I don’t want to hear any excuses. You are. Much more than you think you are!
So, one of the first big recommendations I have for you is—instead of 30 and 60-minute meetings—schedule 15-20 and/or 45-minute meetings in your schedule.
Why? Because it will free up those 10-15 minutes in the hour for you to do the admin that usually stacks up at the end of the day. Think about it! If you have a meeting with a client or a direct report, you’re usually left with action items at the end of the day—an email or file you need to send, to-dos you need to take care of, etc. Instead of having a full day’s meetings worth of meeting admin to take care of as you’re trying to sign off for the day, what is that admin was done?
You can do that with that freed up 10-15 minutes at the end of the meeting! You can send the follow-up email, download and distribute that file, and take care of those to-dos OR schedule them into your workweek.
Obviously, there’s a caveat to this, though. In fact, I can hear people saying it already: “but that’s not enough time!” Honestly, it’s only not enough time if you a) overschedule your meeting (which many of us as managers do anyway), or b) you don’t use your time efficiently. If you want to discuss something with your team, set a timer to ensure the discussion doesn’t run on too long. Organize your agenda by priority and then, if you don’t have time to get to something, push it to the next week’s meeting, schedule another meeting, OR ask if people are willing to weigh in via Slack or email.
Bottom line: we often don’t use our time well in meetings. Speaking as a former manager, I can attest to this. A condensed timeline will force you to use your time more efficiently, and, frankly, you and your team will thank you for the freed-up time in your schedule.
If you’re not a manager/business owner and don’t have control over your schedule: Bring up the idea to your manager and see if they’re receptive to trying it. OR see if they’re willing to try even ending 5 minutes earlier (25 and 55-minute meetings). Express why and how it would really benefit you (and likely your teammates). The worst they can say is no!
02. automate space in your schedule with your scheduler
Using a tool like Calendly for scheduling appointments has been a game-changer in my day job. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. Whenever I have someone who wants to schedule a phone call, I send them a Calendly link and we’re good to go. It’s so convenient. It’s not only convenient for that, but it also ensures I leave buffer between my meetings.
Most schedulers (Calendly among them) have the ability to set a “before” and “after” event time limit. What does this mean? You can build in to your systems buffer time before and after events that others schedule with you. So, if you don’t want to go straight from one phone call to the next or one coaching call to the next, you can set this up in your systems.
Calendly does this and most other schedulers do this too. I personally use Calendly (the free version) for my day job, and I use Practice for my business. It’s honestly so stinking helpful not to have to worry about back-to-back calls. Now I have to work on my timing…
Bonus: Both Calendly and Practice also have the ability to link to Calendly and Practice also can sync with every single Google calendar on your account (even the shared ones), which is surprisingly not always the case for schedulers!
03. schedule personal time and/or focused work time on your calendar
This is one of those things that’s so easy to do and so easy not to do as well: scheduling your own blocked-out, personal time. I don’t know why more of us don’t do this, but, in today’s fast-paced world, it’s a freaking necessity.
If we don’t take more control over our schedules, the world will control them for us. I have talked to many managers whose calendars are so filled with meetings with their superiors and direct reports that they do not have time to do the work they’re meant to do. I have talked to business owners whose schedules are so jam-packed with appointments they run into the same issue.
We take control of our schedule by giving ourselves space between meetings, automating our schedulers so they give us that space, and creating space of our own. I do this by literally blocking out time in my calendar. I block out time for my morning routines. I block out time for my workouts. I block out time to decompress in the evening (though, I’ll admit, I’m imperfect at abiding it). I block out time to write. I block out time to paint. And I block out time to get things done as needed.
I do this for two reasons:
So no one can schedule into that time in my schedule
Because, somehow, having something take up space on my calendar reminds me that it is important
So, schedule your personal and/or focused work time into your calendar. Set that shit as “busy” and physically block out the space and time you want and need.
04. give yourself buffer time
This is another oldie but a goodie. I used to be so good about this, and, admittedly, my excitement about my goals and projects sometimes gets the best of me, and I’ve moved away from it. Damn it. Yup… I’m calling myself out in this blog post.
When I say “give yourself buffer time”, I mean giving yourself extra time around things in your calendar. For example, give yourself plenty of time if you drive from one place to another. I live in the Seattle area. There can be insane traffic even when traffic “should” be good. And when I’m down to the wire to get home for a meeting? I’m stressing the eff out! So, that’s a place you can give yourself buffer time. Does it only take 30 minutes to drive somewhere? Okay. Give yourself 60 (or at least 45-mins).
We can also give ourselves extra time on tasks. We tend to be a little too wishful regarding how long it will take to get things down. If we have an email to write, we think it will take 5 minutes. Inevitably, it will probably take 10-15 minutes because we’ll be human and get sidetracked, need to track down those notes we took in that meeting to help us write said email, etc. We have a slide deck to put together, and we think it will take 60 minutes. Still, it inevitably takes 90 minutes or 2 hours after we research some of the topics more, fidget with the formatting, and overcome inevitable technology issues.
This is what I mean. There’s actually an often-cited “law” that computer programmers refer to a lot called HoftStadter’s Law: “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.” I have never seen a law that literally refers to itself, but I LIKE IT! In a nutshell, it means this: even when you think you’re giving yourself plenty of extra time, it will always take more.
So, err on the side of longer. Give yourself buffer for your tasks and if you do still happen to finish something in less time! Awesome! I’m sure you’ll be stoked to find that you can either do more (like every high-achievers dream!) or, if you’re feeling particularly rebellious, you can leave early. It’s a win-win!
so…those are tips for making more time in your life!
What do you think? Do you have any others to add?
Drop a comment below!
