Creating more time for yourself

Time Management can be intimidating and overwhelming, but success coach Kenneth Ferrer is making it a little easier with five simple steps.

Track Time Awareness of time is the first and arguably the most important part of becoming more effective and mindful within time management. When working on time management with my clients, I often times have them start by keeping a a time journal for a week; they account for what they are doing for every single hour of the day, and let me tell you, it is QUITE illuminating. I had an executive client learn that she on average checked her social media 10 times a day for around 15 minutes. Thats 2.5 hours! There is a lot that can be gained from increasing your awareness of time by tracking exactly how you spend it.
Rank Your Priorities Now that you’re aware of time its time to reformat your schedule. In my coaching experience I have found that this is the most effective recipe for ranking your priorities. First is your fixed “must-do’s”. Take the kids to school at 7am daily, Monday morning meeting with your direct reports, 10am Sunday Volunteer Time. Now, insert your tasks with the closest due dates, and make sure you tend to them early in the day. After that, you insert your most CHALLENGING tasks, and make sure you put them in your schedule as early in a given day as possible. Research shows that our human willpower behaves similarly to how muscles behave. It starts off effective and strong, but like a muscle, it gets tired and we eventually experience willpower fatigue. Taking care of your must-do’s, tasks with close due dates, and challenging tasks as priorities can help you become more efficient and effective.
Adjust/Remove Time-Wasters Going back to the example of my executive that discovered that she spent 2.5 hours on social media. We decided that it was absolutely essential that we adjusted that part of her life. So instead of fully removing it, we decided that she would allow herself three fifteen minute check-ins per day- one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening. By doing this she ended up gaining an hour and forty five minutes on her schedule a day, which translates to eight hours and forty five minutes a week, and 455 HOURS A YEAR! Listen people, if you find things in your schedule that suck away your time and don’t actually serve you, I implore you to address that by either removing them, or adjusting them so that they are not so damaging.
Say “No Thank You” You might be surprised to learn that when you clear up time in your schedule, all of the sudden all of these interesting opportunities start to pop up! First off, assess any new opportunity to fill your time through a sense of gratitude. Studies show that the more grateful we are, the greater capacity we have to notice good things in our lives. Secondly, regardless of how cool or good something sounds, ask yourself this very important question: In the grand scheme of things, is this new thing really worth sacrificing my time for? The answer is sometimes yes, but often times no. If it is a no, make sure it is a very grateful “no thank you”
Reclaim Your Time You will probably find that you have a lot of new time freed up after you’ve managed it and deleted what you needed to, so now what? This is the perfect time to dive into a passion project, do some charity work, pick up a new hobby, or reinvestigate some social relationships. At the end of the day, life is meant to be LIVED and ENJOYED, but its up to us to make it happen.