In part 1 of Mastering the Art of Time we discussed how to do a Time Audit. With that exercise you discovered how you are currently spending your time and how that compares to your ideal use of your time and energy.
Now that you have done that exercise, you have a clear understanding of
- The activities that are most important to you
- The time you are spending on tasks and activities that you feel waste your time
The next step for becoming a Master of the Art of Time is to create boundaries around the activities that are most important to you and letting go of obligations and Time Vampires that don’t fit your current priorities.
PROTECTING YOUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE – TIME
You identified in your Time Audit the things in your life that you most want to reserve your time to do. You may have discovered these are the things that are most likely to get crowded out by other activities!
Here are a few strategies for protecting the time for your most precious and important priorities.
1. MAKE YOURSELF UNAVAILABLE
This is taking back the lost art of being unavailable.
You’ve seen the out-of-office emails when others are away on vacation.
You can set up the same type of ‘out-of-office’ for protecting your most precious activities.
This can be announcing to others or just keeping in your own schedule time when you are not available for every day communication.
This protected time will be away from email, away from notifications, and free from people just ‘popping in.’ Find yourself that freedom for the things that matter most.
2. DO THIS ACTIVITY FIRST
It is an almost universal rule of time. Things scheduled later get delayed. Sometimes forever.
Put your high priority activities FIRST.
That can be – FIRST thing when you wake up, FIRST thing after lunch, FIRST thing on the weekend.
There are endless opportunities during a day and a week to start over, start again, and put your highest priorities FIRST.
3. FLEX TIME
We all have to admit that time will get away from us sometimes!
After you set up your ideal day and set your boundaries, being flexible with time for your priorities can save the day.
So, you might lose the time you reserved on any given day or week.
Resolve to add more time the next day or week. Keep a balance sheet of the time spent on your most important priorities. If you take from the account one day, give it back on another.
4. RESERVE A MINIMUM TIME
There is so much power to giving just a little bit of your time to an activity every day, no matter how small.
It’s the same effect of just getting outside and starting if you’re planning to exercise.
Promise yourself to do a little bit – no matter how little – on what matters to you most. Sometimes you’ll find you get more time than you had hoped.
AVOIDING ENERGY VAMPIRES
Now let’s talk about setting boundaries around the activities that take your time that are not ultimately very important to you – your Time Vampires.
Let’s keep them at bay! What is the time version of garlic?
1. THE ART OF SAYING NO
It depends on your specific time vampires but if you’re drawn into spending time by others on things that don’t matter to you, you need to master another art – The Art of Saying No.
Practice makes perfect with this one.
Prepare your polite but firm declines.
Hold fast, and repeat as needed.
2. MAKE THE ACTIVITY UNAVAILABLE TO YOU
If your time vampire is something that you pick up and do through habit or procrastination (smartphones, anyone?) make your habit unavailable to you.
Is it the refrigerator? Take a walk.
Is it your phone? Use an app to lock yourself out of social media. Put it in airplane mode. Hide it inconveniently at the bottom of a drawer.
Make it as difficult as possible to get to this time stealer.
3. SET A TIME LIMIT
Some Time Vampires are part of your job or required for another reason.
The problem with these ones is that they get out of hand.
Something that should take 5 minutes takes 30. Things tend to spiral once you get started.
This is where setting a time limit can really help.
For example, your morning email check gets 15 minutes of your time. The timer goes off and the app gets closed until the afternoon.
Schedule something else just after this time limit so you have to go!
ALWAYS RUNNING, NEVER GOING BACKWARDS
How you spend your time is ultimately how you spend your life.
I hope these exercises help you make the most of this most wonderful resource! Don’t forget, Sarah also made a video as an additional resource.
