How to Create More Time In Your Life

Well, for a fleeting moment, I considered it! You know, that moment when the morning alarm goes off and the urge to push snooze, set another alarm, or just ignore it all together crosses your mind.

Oh, how I wanted to do any of the above!

Just 10 more minutes, 30 more minutes, or best yet, NO alarm! Glorious!

A question that I always get from friends, family, and clients is, “How do you find the time to do everything that you do?”

Well, contrary to popular belief, I have not mastered time travel (not even close) nor have I figured out how to add time to the day (again, bummer). But, I definitely can share with you how to maximize the time that you have so that you can feel more in control of your day, your time, and what you need to or desire to get done!

Last time I checked, there is, was, and always will be 24 hours in a day. I know this is going to come as a shocker, but you can’t make time and you can’t find it. What you can do is maximize the value that you assign to your time.

Jim Rohn put it this way, “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you can’t get more time.”

Let me introduce this to you. If you value it, you will protect it.

I totally, could have hit the snooze this morning. I’ve done it before (lots). And I must admit, I LOVE the snooze button. I’ve also gotten pretty adept at resetting the alarm and falling right back to sleep too! In fact, I’d consider myself a pro!

Unfortunately, I knew that if I hit the button that I would not get back the time, and I would regret it.

Instead I chose to value that precious little “extra” time; that truly wasn’t extra at all.
You see, we tend to look at time as if it expands and contracts; that we can stretch out our day or that we can get or find extra time – but we can’t! But we CAN protect the limited time we have – and yes, our time is limited in so many ways!

Think about it. We only have 24 hours in a day. We have obligations that take our time. Heck, just living takes time. We have to eat, sleep, take care of ourselves, work, and the list goes on.

To make matters worse, we have limited time on this planet and there is no guarantee how long that will be. So we have to make the time that we do have, while we have it, count.

I know I have driven this point home enough – bear with me.  

Our time is limited, precious, and a valuable commodity. You can’t get it back and you can’t make more of it – so how exactly do we maximize it?

By valuing it.

Just the same as managing a financial portfolio, maximizing your time is done by placing a high value on each item in your time portfolio and making careful decisions where investments are made.

I had to DECIDE that setting my alarm 30 minutes earlier would be valuable to me. I believed when I set the alarm last night that an “extra” 30 minutes in my day would help me knock a few things off my “to do” list before moving into the rest of my day. But DECIDING alone isn’t going to get you anywhere. Again, remember, I’m really good at “re-deciding” when the alarm goes off to reset the alarm.

How many of you have DECIDED to go on a diet and then a few days in DECIDED to eat something that wasn’t part of the plan? How about a New Year’s resolution? What happened to that decision? Did you hit snooze?

DECIDING is only Part I. DOING, ACTING, FOLLOWING THROUGH is the most important part because this is where value comes in.

By selecting the amount of time that you choose to invest in and then actually investing in that time, you will feel like a million bucks. You won’t regret “finding the time.” Instead, you will relish in the euphoric feeling of accomplishment. Heck! You just created time! Or, so it will seem to the mere mortals around you.

“How do you find all the extra time?” they will ask.

To which you can sound super philosophical and whip out a quote from William Penn, “Time is what we want most, but we use worst.”

Okay, you don’t have to give a flip response, but now that I have planted that brain worm (you are welcome), you can just smile and offer real wisdom. You might say something like this:

“I DECIDED and then followed through, investing in by protecting, specific portions of my time….and my investment keeps paying me dividends. I now feel like I have more time – even though I still have just 24 hours in a day. I’m maximizing the time that I have by valuing my limited commodity. I’m not creating more time, I’m just using what I have more wisely. And I FEEL GREAT!”

Now that you have an idea of how to place value on your time by protecting it, you can begin to see how you can get more done. Remember, just like saving money, it all adds up.
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In my next article I will share with you my time management success formula. This is my proven approach to take advantage of peak brain performance time and optimize outcomes! Stay tuned!