Tuesday 9 April 2013

You Got No Time, really?

I often hear from many, I just don't have time. I wish I had more hours in a day. I wish I had time, but family, work, and house take up all my time. And so on. And yes, we actually don't have time. We are allocated 24 hours in a day for 365 days a year. There is no way around it. But what strikes me is that people often do not see how this time is actually allocated. No "yeah, buts". I don't want to brag about myself, but I have a family with two kids, a full-time job, business, house, warm homemade dinners, and even time for my hobbies. I strategically use my time. The moment I catch myself wasting time I stop immediately. Internet is my biggest time waster.

I once have read that if you really want something, you will find time. Now lets do a little math. Assume you have a full-time 40hr/week job. And a house. And a husband (to be fed). And maybe even kids (also to be fed). Say it takes you 1 hour to get home from work. That leaves about 3 hours every evening. Weekend - 12 hours x 2 = 24 hrs. A total of 39 hours. Sounds like a lot, but not really. Lets subtract dinner time, kids activities, cleaning, meal preps, oh boy. Now it is really like 15 hours.

The "not so secret" to getting more time to do things you love and want to do is this. STOP doing other things that take up your precious time. Sounds simple right? At first some may not like you. As in, "what, are you not watching this reality show or tv series?" Or even, "no satellite at your house?" Or "you are not coming to this event?" I say, stop talking to these people. At least for a bit.

The thing is, our lives got so complicated for some reason. Do our kids need to do 5 after school activities? What about traffic time? Lineups? Commercials? Do you have to go to every event and invitation you get?

No more! Simplify your life as much as you can. Get more done every hour that you have. Turn off tv. Or even better, get rid of tv from your bedroom and extra TV set elsewhere.

Prepare lunches the night before. Hire help for cleaning, lawn, or snow. Reach out to your network, it does NOT have to be expensive.

Set strict priorities. Allocate only 30 mins for dinner prep. That's right, Internet is full of quick recipes. And only 20 mins for clean-up every night. See how you can challenge yourself and load a dishwasher in 6 minutes. Organize house chaos. Use buckets, bins for toys. Know where every single item belongs to in your house. Check out this very inspirational site (iheartorganizing.com)

Arrange your closet. Know what to wear to work the night before. Do not wear high maintenance items like silk or things that need to be ironed daily. Stop shopping for clothes! Only buy key pieces that can be worn in multi-functional ways.

Use as many multi-function items as you can. Make lists of todos. Never shop hungry.

And most importantly, always be happy in the moment. Being happy and satisfied with a specific moment will bring you a lifetime joy of feeling and getting accomplished more. You got more time and more done.

Do you agree?

2 comments:

  1. yeah and on top of that I have to work on my PhD Thesis every week end, apart of having two jobs(full time and part time)and teaching a preschool group on Saturdays mornings...eh

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  2. I hope my post will motivate you even more to keep everything going. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete