I’ll bet you’ve got a number of started or almost-started projects that you’d love to do. Perhaps you dream of starting your own business, writing a novel, learning a foreign language, or taking a qualification. Or maybe you want to get the attic cleared out, organise your files, or repaint the hallway. It could even be that you know you need to take the time to exercise, meditate or journal … but you never get around to it.
The problem is, your life is already full, and you end up busy with all the day-to-day things, unable to find time for what you really want to do. Here are some ways to make the time that you need:
Use Your First Hour
How often have you told yourself that you’ll get to your big project or your novel or your spring cleaning once everything else is done?
And how often have you reached the end of the day, and had no energy? How often has something unexpected cropped up that steals away the time you were going to spend working towards your goal?
An easy solution is to take the first hour of your day and use it for what really matters to you. Everything else can wait for just one hour.
Use Your Diary
If you never seem to have a free day to clear the garage, or a weekend to get that small business launched, then pick up your diary. Look ahead a few weeks, and find a day or a couple of days that you can block out to work on something important to you.
Treat this time just as seriously as if you were going on vacation or to a seminar. If you’re asked to make social or voluntary commitments during it, explain that you’re busy.
You’ll find that your existing work and other activities flow around the time that you’ve blocked out, leaving you with the space to finally make progress on your project.
Use Your Friends
Sometimes, freeing up an hour of your day, or a couple of days in a month, just isn’t easy. Perhaps you have childcare responsibilities, a demanding job, or a lot of different commitments.
This is when friends and family can come in handy. Don’t be afraid to ask for the support that you need: many people will be genuinely glad to do you a favor. Ask a friend to babysit your kids while you write your business plan; let your spouse or housemate cook dinner while you head to the gym; get advice from a friend on how to move forwards with your plans.
Friends can also be a great source of encouragement. You could ask a friend to keep you accountable by checking up on your progress, whether that’s through a weekly phonecall or a quick daily check-in on Twitter. Sometimes, it’s easier to stay motivated when you know that someone else is cheering you on.
Use Your Willpower
Finally, in order to make time for the things which really matter to you, you’ll need to use your willpower.
You might hope that because you’re working on a project that’s important – whether it’s your novel or your small business or something self-nurturing – that you’ll always feel motivated. Chances are, though, that there’ll be times when you’re tired, or when you have to work through something difficult or dull in order to get to the next steps.
At those times, you’ll want to answer your emails, or watch television, or sleep in.
This is when using your willpower matters. Don’t say that you “have no willpower” – we all do. The more you exercise some self-discipline, the easier it becomes; plus, there are ways to increase your willpower. Sometimes, you’ll need to force yourself to make time for your project even when you don’t feel like it – because you know that making steady progress is going to be a great feeling.
How do you make time for the things you really want to do? What important projects have you stalled on? How can you get going again?
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Hey Ali.
Asking for support is something I haven’t usually done, but you are right that others would be genuinely interested in helping if I thought of where they could. Your point about setting up a day to do what is important sure makes sense to me. If we can plan a future day that we have free in advance, to use it for one solid activity, we can do more in that day than we normally do in a week.
As usual, great points here and great use of bolding to get the key messages through.
Hey Ali,
I’m definitely gonna put the first-hour tip into use. I often use the first hour to just surf the web. By the time I’m done, I don’t feel like working on my main projects anymore
I think organizing your activity in correlation with the time of the day and your energy level can have a lot of benefits.
Eduard
making time that is very productive is one thing i can agree with as well. It’s so easy for us to start working on a project and then spend valuable time checking email and stats for no apparent reason.
Great post ali
Yes,I like the first hour idea as well. I tend to check my emails etc but to actually do what is really important to me…hmm… this forces me to re-examine my priorities.
Thanks for this.
Doug
Very clear, innovative and practical advice! Like the last two commenters, I especially love the “First Hour” idea. I will definitely be checking out this site more in the near future. Thanks for your efforts!
Thanks for the quick tips. I always find myself doing that little clean up of procrastination right before I have a big project to get started on.
Peace
Jonathan
When your job is stressful, it’s very comforting to know that you can count on your friends & family. As you said, take a half our – an hour free time, to think about something else that work. It really helps you chill your thoughts.