5 Top Tips to Finding More Time

Sometimes great opportunities come along, and we don’t see them. Maybe we already have too much on our plate, or we don’t have the mental or physical energy to look up and look out.

If you’re not managing your time well, there’s no way you’re going to reach your goals at work or outside of it.

With just a few simple changes, find out how to free up your time, and de-clutter your mind.

“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.”
CHARLES BUXTON

1

ORGANISE YOUR STUFF

Do you spend a lot of time looking for things?

Productivity research tells us that the average person spends 10% of the day looking for things. Imagine, you could gain 5 weeks a year just by getting your retrieval methods under control!

TIPS AND ACTIONS

When you arrive at work or return home, take a moment to put your coat and keys where they belong. Put papers where you can put your hand on them quickly.

Use your workspace and personal space to their greatest advantage. There is no need to do a big clean up once a year if you can take a half hour once a week to file, sort, and keep things organised.

Sort out your stuff, and watch time magically appear.

2

ORGANISE YOUR INBOX

If you are receiving tasks and assignments by e-mail, make sure you organize these incoming items immediately.

There is no excuse these days not to organize your inbox. Every email system has great filtering tools. Don’t get distracted by cute little headlines with delicious info and remedies for everything. Focus on your goals and targets, and pop anything that’s not related to this them in a ‘read at the end of the day or when on a break” folder.

3

ORGANISE YOUR TIME

Make a plan. Time spent up front in organising your workload is worth its weight in gold in staying on track for your goals.

Find the right system to actually do it. Stephen Covey’s quadrant time-management system is one of our favourites. It splits your activities into four quadrants based on urgency and importance.

Things are either urgent or important, both, or neither. Focus your energy on I and II, tactical and strategic importance, push back on III, and use IV for time out when you need a break!

4

LET THINGS GO

The clutter experts say if you haven’t used an item of clothing for a year, pass it on. Besides creating more room in your wardrobe, all that “stuff” can be used by people who need or will really appreciate them.

Apply the same thing to work: when you no longer need things, get rid of them.

Pass on things to friends or colleagues who will value them. Such as the “motivational book” that’s now collecting dust, the business card you’ve already recorded, the laptop bag you no longer use.

This also goes for people. Surround yourself with purposeful clients, colleagues, and friends, and move on from those who are not adding to your goals or energy.

5

DELEGATE

Don’t waste your time doing things that somebody else can do, especially if they can do them better than you. Save your time for those things that you are uniquely qualified to do. In addition to freeing your time up, delegation helps others to learn.

Mental fitness and stamina is just like physical fitness and stamina – work on it. Let go of the things that will help other people develop and work on your own talent and growth.