An average person, with an average life, lives 27,350 days.
When I first heard this, the image that came to mind was a giant clock in the corner of my room counting down to my final D day.
As someone who teaches time management on a regular basis, using my time wisely and paying attention to where my time is spent, is something that is second nature to me. However, working with business owners and service providers has given me a glimpse into the inner workings of how others are using (or wasting) their time.
When you think about your time and where it’s spent, how much of it is spent doing things you love?
How much of your time is spent with your friends and family, indulging in your hobbies, going on adventures, travelling (even just locally), cooking, or just having fun?
Take a minute and think about how you are spending your days – ’til D day – and where you are spending your time. Is there a sense of regret, frustration, or guilt?
How much time is spent commuting?
On social media?
Binging your favourite TV shows?
How much time is spent at work?
When we know the answers to these questions, we start to get a clear understanding of whether or not we’re wasting our time (and our lives), and this leads to the question, “am I managing my time to the best of my ability?”
Often the conversation on time management is likened to knowing where to spend your time, on what and for how long. But what if we could also look at how to use our time more efficiently.
See when we waste our time, we waste our life.
Using our time wisely is essential if we want to maximize our life and it’s something we can start doing now.
If time management and being efficient is something you struggle with, you’re not alone. The good news is that you can change your behaviour at any time and reclaim your time with these 10 helpful tips and tricks.
10 ways to manage your time better.
- Laser focus on the task at hand. The average office worker gets distracted 37 times per hour, don’t let that be you.
- Stop multitasking. No, multitasking does not make you more productive. People who multitask make more mistakes than people who don’t.
- Get clear on your own boundaries and limitations so you don’t take on too much.
- Be realistic, not everything you do is urgent, deadlines can be moved and so can non-urgent tasks.
- Bookmark frequently used sites. This might be a no-brainer but if you go to a site every day bookmark it for ease of use.
- Improve your typing skills. We live in the age of technology which means a lot of typing. If your typing skills aren’t up to standard take some time to improve them.
- Email templates, if you write a similar email over and over again create a template! Managing your time and becoming more efficient is about finding opportunities to save minutes!
- Come back to the moment. Don’t allow your thoughts to distract you! If you find yourself being distracted by the future or past this will slow you down, take a breath and come back to the moment.
- Take a break. When you take a break you allow inspiration to flow in. Breaks help you reduce stress and they give you a big picture view of your situation.
- Decide what is important. When we look at how to manage our time, we need to know what is important to us and make those things a priority..
Reading a top ten list of suggestions or things to incorporate into your life can be intimidating however it doesn’t have to be.
Choose one thing on the list, perfect it (or as close as you can) and then move to the next thing.
Written by Lauren Tuck @RahRahConsulting
About the author
Lauren Tuck is the owner/operator of Rah Rah Consulting and the Rah Rah Spirit Team Mentorship and the creator of the Task Reduction System, learn to reduce your work hours by half, without playing catch-up on the weekend.
She is the host of The Rah Rah Podcast, The Afterlight Podcast and co-host of The Business in the Front, Party in the Back Podcast.
Lauren has over 15 + years of experience in marketing, sales, event production, online and media. Through one-on-one and group mentoring, Lauren teaches small and medium-sized businesses and service providers, strategies for building a successful and stress-free business and life (because you are more than your business)!
Sign up for Lauren’s free masterclass where she’ll teach you how to reduce your work hours by half! https://rahrahconsulting.com/freemasterclass/
Free Time-Tracker, Crush your to-do list by finding extra time in your day, download our free Time Tracker here!
Sources:
For 27,350 days to live – Bob Goff
https://podbay.fm/p/building-a-storybrand-with-donald-miller/e/1593421200
The average office worker gets distracted 37 times per hour, don’t let that be you. Source: Book The One Thing.