Is it really possible to increase your spare time? The answer is yes!
 

Managing Your Time

Managing your time efficiently is something that you struggle with everyday. It seems that you are the only one that has an issue with this, but truth be told, everyone faces problems with managing their time.

On a typical day you feel as if time is flying past you. You find yourself not being able to do all the things you want to.

Usually you barely have time to yourself, you run around helping other people and by the time you sit down at the end of the day you feel exhausted.
 

Once again you are forced to put off what you have been wanting to do for so long because you feel that you just do not have the time.

You want to be able to feel more in control of your day. Have more time to spend with your family, finally get through your task list, build better habits, reach your goals, manage your working day to end when you finish your shift, have a social life and find balance.

You want to be happy once again and not feel as if you never have time for yourself and the things that you enjoy most.

After all, Life is for living!
 

This post will show you how to increase your time more efficiently, maximise your day by working smarter not harder, and stop procrastinating.

Use these quick and easily implementable tips in your daily routine now and see instant results.
 

 Disclaimer: This contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you through my links, if you decide to make a purchase.

 

Top Tips to Increase Your Spare Time

1. Time Pockets

Before you can use your time more efficiently you first need to figure out where you can earn some of it back.

Time Pockets are the blocks which are created from task to task. You can use these to your advantage, and I am sure you have more of them than you realise.
 

To work out these where you have Pockets, download your Time Pie here. This simple guide will make you see where these pockets are, allowing you to work in these blocks.

Build this into your daily routine, allow yourself time for breaks and remember to tell other people not to disturb you when you need to focus on urgent tasks.

 

2. Think more clearly

By thinking more clearly you begin to understand how your mind works. How you think determines how you act, by having a deeper understanding of how you perceive different situations you are able to decide the best course of action.

As you wish to decrease your working pattern to increase other areas in your life, being able to have a more clear mindset will in turn help you to act more efficiently.

One of the most helpful books about gaining a better understanding of how your mind works was the book ‘The Science of Intelligent Decision Making’ by Peter Hollins. He stated that when you “think about thinking more, you can better understand your own thought processes”.

Making time for implementing gratitude techniques into your routine can be highly beneficial to increasing your productivity and positivity in your life.

It can boost your mental health, have positive effects on your personal and professional relationships.

You will notice more of the good things that happen in your day, allowing you to not dwell on the negative. This will begin to change the way you think so that you start to heal your mind from the inside out. Gratitude will have a positive effect on your self-esteem and confidence, as when we make others feel good, it in turn makes ourselves feel good.

3. Stop procrastinating

Most people might put off doing a task because it is unpleasant to do, or it might seem overwhelming at the time. However, you put off doing a task because it will help you.

Now why would you put off something that will help you progress, surely this does not make sense.

The reason behind this procrastination technique goes deeper than surface level, yes it might overwhelming you, and you may feel uneasy at times.

 The success of any task is in your hands, it is not written in stone that you will fail or not, this is completely your choice. 

You might stumble a little, but it is all part of the process. Without this process you cannot grow into the best version of yourself, changing a bad habit such as, procrastination will take time.

Be forgiving on yourself and stay calm, keep going and drop me a message for extra support.

Wondering whether or not to hire a coach, not sure why you would need one? See for yourself here.
 

Stop feeding into this negative void of feeling like you cannot achieve something before it has even happened.

Start putting your energy into making smaller tasks which are easily achievable. This will make you feel more confident each time you progress and get through each task.

Soon you will of completed that bug task and look back at all you have achieved!

The best book that I have read which gives you those small tips to stop procrastinating is Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. It honestly is one of the best and most productive books that I have read.

You do not have to like reading to read a book, especially when the book helps you out in so many ways.
 

You may think that I must love to read but honestly thought I would never enjoy it due to having dyslexia. This created negative thinking in relation to reading. Tracy’s book supported a new way of working through procrastination.

You cannot truly get over procrastination if it is apart of your personally trait, but you can learn to use different strategies and personalise them to your own life.

4. Organisation

Now you need to sort out the clutter in your life. This can be physical clutter, or emotional clutter.

Physical clutter is putting papers into folders, organising drawers, clearing up your work desk, etc. Opening your curtains to let natural light in.

Emotional clutter is anyone that does not provide you with a good energy. This can be personal or work related friend, either way if they are not offering this to you, you need to let them go over time.

After all gaining more time is why you are here.

If that person makes you feel drained after you meet up with them, or you know deep down that they only want the latest goss from you then ask yourself, is this really how I want to spend my time?

Time as you know is very precious and you cannot afford to waste it on actions that do not make feel at your best.

5. Set Priorities

Work in a smarter way. By setting priorities to your tasks you will get through the most urgent ones first.

Separate your tasks into urgent and important. Urgent means that these tasks need to be done first, they cannot wait.

Whereas your important tasks do not have a time crunch on them. They can wait a little longer but preferable be completed in the same day.

Do not put too much on your list, a maximum of 20 tasks before you find support to help you with them.

6. Planning makes perfect

What can help more than having a plan. Planning is not just for a special event in your life. These skills are transferrable to all parts of you day.

7. Find support

Having the right support system have many positive benefits, you will feel higher levels of productivity as you have someone else to keep you accountable.

You have better skills for dealing with problems and the longer you have that constant support, the quicker your problem solving skills increase.

The right support can reduce anxiety and give you the emotional wellbeing that you are craving.

 Your support can happen in many forms, from your close  family, friends or you can outsource.

 Using your friends and family may seem like the most logical decision to help support your time keeping and productivity plan.

 However, if they are part of the issue you might find that you sway around certain issues or that they may not fully understand why you feel you need more time in certain areas.

Using an external source can help support you on a more focused level. You know that you will get the result that you are wanting due to the person’s particular support that they offer.

8. Reduce Wasted Time

Write down all the things that you do which you could live without or reduce in these activities below.

• Devices: Use the voice note feature on your device to save time writing things out. Stay focused on the task at hand.
• Email/ Messages: Respond only to the urgent time specific messages. Turn off notifications.
• Use a diary to help schedule your time. Know exactly where you have time to spare, when others might be dropping by or where you can relax.
• Video call: Use the record button to record the meeting, meaning that you can be 100% focused on this without worrying about having to remember everything they have said. Make sure you ask permission to record them first.
• Family Time: You can easily have a family calendar set up and sync them together. This is very helpful for busy people such as yourself, and you will avoid double booking yourself which could cause more stress. You can use the reminders tool to help others take responsibility for their own activities so that you can focus on other things.

9. Balanced Mind and Body

Unfortunately you cannot have one without the other, you may feel that at times you give more energy to either you mindset or you body.

In reality, you need to nurture both to have a balance and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Scheduling time to relax is important for your mental health, you do not want to risk burn out.

Be sure to monitor this time, you may need to set yourself some free tie boundaries.

Not saying that some days you cannot just relax and not think about your ‘to do list’, but you want to know how you gain more time.

Apart of that is making sure you do not waste your spare time watching screens as this will have an adverse effect on your wellbeing.
 

Digital Well-being

Have you ever felt less productive the less you do?

This is because your digital wellbeing is out of balance. If you must use screens for a long period of time, I recommend getting some Blue-light blocker glasses. They are easily attainable, non expensive and they do have any prescription attached, you can find many different styles here. You will immediately see and feel the difference when working on your devices,

You should set yourself a working and play schedule if you feel it is required, bare in mind that you know yourself best. Set a time each night to shut off these devices, this will allow your mind to relax and make it easier for you to fall asleep.

If you feel you need to listen to the TV to fall asleep there are many podcasts or audio books available that will have adverse effects.
 

Physical Well-being

Balancing your body consists of the food that you consume and the exercise that you do.

This means feeding your brain with the right foods to give your the energy that it needs to produce productive work.

Slowing down your breathing will help to increase the time you have in your day and destress your body. When you breathe deeper and for longer pauses between breathes, you will instantly feel more relaxed. Increasing your time to process new information.

 

Emotional Well-being

To keep this balanced, make sure that you work on your mindset each day.

A great way is to use affirmations to increase your self-belief and confidence.

You may find that reading supportive material and talking through your emotions with your support system will also help maintain your emotional well-being.

As long as you do not dwell on events. This could be one of the worst things to do, not only does it waste more of your precious time, but it stops you from letting go of this negative tension.

Everyone, but especially women hold much of their stress in their bodies. This can form in having tense or stiff shoulders and / or neck.

Allowing yourself to regularly release this tension will make you feel much better.

If you feel that you need to relax more through a calming activity then Simply Zen Therapies is the massage specialist you have been waiting for.

10. Avoid multi-tasking

Studies show that even though you think multi-taking is a great way to get all the things done in one day.

Actually you stop yourself from focusing completely. When you keep switching tasks your brain finds it more difficult to refocus, resulting in loss of productivity.

Try to maintain your focus on one task until this is completed.

Try to keep clear of distractions, turn off phone and other notifications, set aside time for specific tasks. Allow yourself time to relax each day but wait until the end of the day.

You can look forward to this quality time spent by yourself, with family, friends or your pets.

When you can de-stress or reduce your stress in your day then do it. Make sure any mini task that you assign yourself, you achieve. You want these to be small tasks that line up with your end goal, but not too big you feel you will not ever achieve them.

To see the biggest benefit from these tips, I recommend going through them in order.

If you feel you need extra support, please do not hesitate to drop me a message.