How to find time in this busy world

THIS is something that we ALL struggle with – and we’re here to provide you with some ways to fit more of what YOU want to do into your life around kids, work, partners, chores, and full social lives.

Do the most difficult and important tasks first thing

Even if you are an evening person, when you get to your ‘doing’ time, do the most difficult and important tasks first.

This way your energy and clarity is at its highest so you complete the task rather than putting it off until tomorrow, and by doing it first, you set yourself up to be WAY more productive (you actually trick your mind into thinking you’re amazing) so all the other smaller and less difficult or important tasks seem like a breeze!

Try it out – we always seem to go for the easy options because it feels good to tick something off, but I can guarantee that after you’ve ticked off a couple of easy tasks, you lose your mojo.

Start with the difficult one and even if it takes half the day to complete, you’ll breeze through your easy to do’s after that and end up being WAY more productive overall.

Don’t put off a 30 second job or a 1 minute job till tomorrow

They’ll all pile up and you’ll spend half the day finishing these off… and there goes your day!

For example: You get home, dump your bag which is filled with your gym clothes. The dishwasher is full and clean, there’s a pair of socks sitting on the couch and the coffee table has a bunch of forms that need sorting out. Each one of these will take you approximately 1-3 minutes to sort out.

Say you don’t and you have another 3-5 things that take 5 minutes each to work out the following day – see how these all start to add up and it’ll take you half a day to manage?

I’ve taken to forcing myself just to make the effort and unpack my bag, or tidy up after I’ve finished doing work on the coffee table, or if I see a jumper, instead of hanging it over a chair, walking to the cupboard and putting it away. It’s no skin off my nose at the time – it literally took 1 minute to complete – but saves me hours of work later on.

This is an interesting one – Use your values to make decisions about your time.

For example, if you value family then you make decisions regarding your time that are based around your family. It may mean that a work meeting must be rescheduled or shortened because to you, family is more valuable.

Living your values keeps you in alignment with your goals and keeps you feeling ‘at peace’ instead of constantly struggling. And when you’re in this zone, you are FAR more likely to succeed at what you do.

We all have a value we put on our health and our well-being.

Some of you may put a greater value on this after a scare, or just really feel fantastic when you’re exercising consistently. Ask yourself what value you put on your own health, fitness and well-being – how important is it to your ongoing enjoyment of life?

The answer may surprise you!

What’s next?

Taking this value you place on your health, fitness and well-being, its now time to work this into your schedule and prioritise it over things that you value less such.

On the other hand, it may be less valuable than time with the family, so you need to factor that in to your schedule and not create a values clash – this is the quickest way to lose motivation.

This comes into scheduling – and I bet you’ve heard this time and time again. But its critical so you don’t feel overwhelmed and running around chasing your tail all week.

Block out a short 10-15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon or evening and just plan out your week ahead. Block in appointments, work times, and importantly your exercise times too. Also include travel time and rest and renewal time – time for you and the family/social life/fun and enjoyment, based on what is important and valuable to you.

And the big one – exercising will actually HELP with your productivity!

Exercising increase blood flow through the body, which enhances brain function and capacity to focus.

I always find when I’m trying to grapple with a difficult concept, question or problem that exercise helps clear the head and provide overall clarity.