I finally figured out why it felt like I never had enough time. I was trying to fit 14 hours of ‘To do’s” into a 10 hours. Sound familiar?
Everyone has 24 hours in a day. It’s how you use those hours that determines what you get done. If you want to be more productive in your day, then “Time Hacking” is a great time management tool that allows you to be more efficient.
Time hacking in 7 easy steps
1. Identify.
Write down everything you do throughout your day. Your commute to and from appointments, errands, lunch etc.
2. Outline what you do daily.
Figure out what things you do daily like: replying to emails, creating social media post, planning, surfing the web, etc. Tally how much time you spend on each of these tasks.
3. Identify one weekly goal.
Outline all the actions you need to take in order to accomplish your goal. Then figure out how long it will take to complete each action. Using a productive planner will help you prioritize what’s the best use of your time. Tally the time you have designated to get each task done.
4. Batch
Look at both the second and third lists and see what things can be combined. For example, we lose a lot of time stopping to respond to emails and text messages. Allocate time in your schedule to check and respond to these items. No more stopping and starting.
Another place we lose time is on planning social media. Doing all of your social media once a month and putting it into an automated program like Planoly will free up time as well.
5. Tally up all the times in #1 and #4.
It’s ok if you end up with 10 hours of work for an 8 hour period because this is where we start ‘time hacking’.
6. Break task into 15 minute time slots.
If you wrote down it takes 30 minutes to drive and set up, that will be two 15 minute time blocks. Do this with everything. Breaking things into 15 minute blocks makes your task more manageable and give you greater flexibility with your time.
7. Grab your red pen.
Just like how Marie Kondo approaches decluttering, you have to identify what’s cluttering up your workday and eliminate it. For example, if you want to go to the printers, find a coffee shop closer to the shop where you can work so you don’t waste time going back and forth. Or batch all of the things that need to take place in that area and complete them in a day.
You may have to move take bigger steps with your batching. Batch cooking on the weekends allows you to have lunch ready for the week. Once you get the hang of this, it becomes really easy to create a clutter-free, productive day where you can accomplish all of your designated tasks and have more time to spend on your goals.
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