At some point, I think we’ve all been in that place where we find ourselves wondering how to create more time in our day.
Right now I’m in a season of life where I have some disposable free time. However, it hasn’t always been this way. I remember well the days of rushing out the door to get the kids dropped off at school and then myself to work. My lunch hour was spent running errands or making phone calls.
As soon as I was able to leave work there was a mad rush to pick up the kids from school. Most evenings had us running to get something to eat, then off to sports practice or games. If there were no sporting events there were church activities. Of course, homework has to be done each night along with a hundred other things. In between, there was cooking cleaning, and grocery shopping.
The end of each night left me longing for a few extra hours in the day.
All that craziness helped me learn how to get stuff done and create more time in my days. Here are 7 of the top things that helped me do just that and I’m confident will help you too!!
1. Declutter and Organize your Home
I cannot emphasize this enough! This is the number one thing that absolutely must be done if you want to create more time in your day.
Every single possession you own takes some amount of your time. It doesn’t matter what it is, this applies to EVERYTHING you own. Whether it’s cleaning, maintaining, or storing your stuff, all of it requires your effort and time.
Needless to say, the more clutter you accumulate the more time you’re giving up on it.
If you can eliminate even a few hours a week spent cleaning and maintaining all the stuff you have, think about how you can use that time for what matters most to you.
When your home is cluttered and disorganized you waste a ton of time looking for things and important papers. When you make decluttering a priority you gain back control of your time. Letting go of unnecessary possessions also means less time cleaning up, putting things away, and maintaining your space.
By making decluttering a priority you have time to build and strengthen your relationships, to take care of yourself, to create a life you love, and do those things that matter most to YOU!
There’s no time like the present to start decluttering your home.
2. Brain Dump
One of the things that take up a good amount of our time is managing all the stuff we have swirling around in our heads. Our brains have a limited capacity, there is only so much information that we can store in our mind. The more information we try to keep in our brain, the more decisions we make throughout the day, the more tired we become. This is actually a scientific fact and it’s known as decision fatigue.
So if you want to create more time in your day, you’ve got to get all that stuff out of your brain. This is why it’s called a brain dump. You’re gonna dump everything that’s in your brain onto paper.
Remember, the point of brain dumping is to write EVERYTHING down as it comes into your brain. Grap a good old-fashioned pen and some paper. I like to use a regular spiral-bound school notebook from Target. This way I have my thoughts all in one place. You might also want to pour yourself a cup of coffee or some tea.
Next, just start writing. Think about all those things you must do. Next, think about the things you want to do. As they come to mind, write them down in your notebook.
By taking all this stuff from your brain to paper, it frees your brain from overwhelm. Plus, all the things you need to do is now in front of you. With everything you need to do on paper, you can begin working on those tasks.
You’ll also have a nice list of all the things you want to do, which makes it easy to start making a plan! When you begin doing the things you want to do, and not just what you have to do, you’ll naturally create in your day. This is because you’ve now made time for what matters most!
3. Plan Out Your Schedule
Far too often we wear busyness as a badge of honor. Part of it is our culture, we do live in an age driven by busyness, with countless demands on our time. However, trying to meet all those demands without a plan and schedule, is what creates so much stress in our lives.
On the other hand, taking a few minutes each day to plan and look at your schedule, allows you to arrange your tasks so that you accomplish much more in less time.
For example, if you know you have to pick your kids up from school or another activity, plan your errands so that you only have to go out once. This means if you have a school pick-up scheduled for 3:00, you plan your trip to the bank for either right before or right after the school pick-up.
You can also plan to take care of certain tasks while you’re waiting for any appointments your kiddos may have. For me, my Son has an appointment every Tuesday that takes about one hour. I always plan to do my bible study during this appointment time.
The same is true with meals. If you know you need to start dinner each night at 5:00, don’t start working on a project at 4:30 that’s gonna take you more than 30 minutes to complete. Instead, schedule time to work on that project earlier in the day or later in the evening.
I designed the It’s My Favorite Planner specifically to allow you to plan all these daily tasks in one place. There are separate spaces for keeping track of your and your children’s activities. Next to your weekly schedule is space for planning your week’s meals so you can match them to your schedule.
You can get a free printable copy of the basic planner by signing up for the VIP list. Just click the image above, or click here to see more details on the planner.
If you prefer a hardbound planner, I highly recommend the Living Well Planner. I’ve used this planner for several years and love it. The planner has everything you need in one place, including meal planning, goal setting, and budgeting. You can get more information on the Living Well Planner here.
4. Know Your Limits
If you want to create more time in your day, you must stop overextending yourself. Yes, I know this is easier to say than to do, however, overextending yourself is the leading cause for making you feel like you need more hours in your day.
There are always pulls on your time, but the truth is that no matter what you do, you only have 24 hours on a given day. It’s time to start taking on only what you can reasonably handle without compromising your sanity and your family time!
You cannot do everything. No one can!
If you try to do everything, the only thing you’ll accomplish is to overwhelm yourself. To create more time in your day say no to the things that do not fit within your priorities.
I know it can be so hard to say no. When we overextend ourselves most of the time it’s because we want to be helpful to others. But here’s the thing, when we overextend ourselves, it’s not long before we’re only helping out of obligation rather than a genuine desire to help.
When you continue at this pace, at some point, something or someone is sure to suffer. Stop overextending yourself and start saying no!!
5. Delegate
5. DelegateThis is, without a doubt, the hardest area for me to put into practice. For starters, I stink at both asking for and accepting help. Plus if I’m being honest, most of the time I think I can do it quickly and it’s easier than asking someone for help. But this is just wrong thinking.
We simply cannot do everything and overwhelm ensues when we try. If you also struggle in this area, learn to delegate simple tasks and learn to ask for help.
In the end, you’ll create more time in your day. Why, because you’ll accomplish much more in a much shorter period of time. The result will be to leave you with time to enjoy your family and the things that fill you up.
6. Prioritize
Now that you’ve stopped overextending yourself you have some extra time.
The next step to create more time in your day is to make sure the things you are spending time on are things that line up with your priorities.
When life is super busy it’s easy to focus only on what needs to be done at that moment. However, learning to prioritize what’s most important, is the key to having time for what you want to do.
You see, when you know something’s not a priority, you know you don’t need to spend time doing it!
Setting out your priorities helps you focus on what really matters in the day to day moments that make up life. The end result is you’ll feel more relaxed knowing that you’re working on those things that matter most to you.
It’s best to write down one to three priorities to focus on each week. Even if you still have a few items on your to-do list, you’ll know you’re focusing on what’s most important.
7. Take a Day Off
7. Take a Day OffYou need to have some downtime to relax and to enjoy your family. I know it’s hard to stop and play when so much else needs to be done.
But here’s the thing, there’s always going to be more things to do than there is time to do it. Sometimes you have to set aside the urgent for the important.
No matter how many pressing and urgent tasks you have on your plate, the truth is that nothing is more important than taking some time off. Whether you believe it or not, taking time off will actually give you the energy to complete those urgent tasks.
When you regularly take time off, you’ll spend less time doing extraneous things. And guess what, the important stuff still gets done. This has the effect of creating more time in your day!
There are ways to get things done and create more time in your day. All it takes is a little bit of planning, prioritizing, and delegating. Just make sure to get that house decluttered and take some time for yourself!!!
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