Most everyone complains that there just isn’t enough time.
“How can I get another hour a day?”
“How can I possibly get everything done?”
“I don’t have time for _____”
There’s really not much you can do about the work day. It is what it is for the most part, and its pretty much controlled by someone else, whether it be a boss or your customers.
If you have kids, the school schedule is what it is. You have no control.
So the only control you have over your life lies in how you manage your home life.
This is shocking!
On average, most people are gone from 7 am to 6 pm.
That leaves 13 hours of ‘life’ time a day.
If you sleep 7 hours (and you should), that still leaves you hours a day. Plus you have weekends.
Now say you sleep 8 hours on weekends. That still leaves you 62 hours of ‘life’ time per week.
In that time you still have to cook, clean, shop, walk the dog, do laundry, and so on…
If you’re working smart, you’ll spend –
- 8-10 hours cooking
- 3-4 hours cleaning
- 1-2 hours folding laundry (but you can do other things while the laundry washes and dries…)
- 2-3 hours doing necessary shopping
That still leaves you 41-48 hours a week of ‘free’ time.
Isn’t that amazing?
You can have a clean house, a healthier diet, a good amount of free time, and more peace of mind.
So, why don’t we?
Its a mindset thing.
If you believe that you don’t have enough time, you’ll put things off and procrastinate. If you don’t think you can finish a thing – why start? “I’ll just do it when I have more time.”
Then all those things you’ve put off pile up. There’s more to do, and now its harder.
Imagine you’re making spaghetti sauce. It splatters. If you wipe it up right away, your stove stays clean. If you leave it and it dries, its now harder to remove and takes more time. If you cook again and it gets burned on there, it takes even longer to clean.
See how the simplest things can pile up?
Here’s some time management secrets …
One secret is to get yourself in the habit of taking care of things right now – while they’re still small.
Another secret is to establish habits and routines so you automatically get things done without too much thought.
One biggie is to reset your priorities. Work first, Play later.
You tell your kids that, don’t you? I know I pounded that into my daughter’s head.
But there you are checking Facebook instead of getting the kitchen cleaned up.
Take the 10 minutes and get the kitchen cleaned up first, then have at Facebook. Better yet- set a timer for how much time you’ll allow yourself to spend on Facebook, or Pinterest, or… They have a way of sucking you in and before you know it – 2 hours are gone!
So – to get things done, and still have time to play –
- Get in the habit of doing things Now!
- Stick to routines
- Work First, Play Later
Just these little shifts will make a big difference. You’ll see!