How often do you not have the Time to do more of the important things?

We all have this list, don’t we?  The things that we know to be more important than what we are generally doing.

Yet we’re always busy doing other stuff.

That somehow seems to consume all our Time.

And much of this is repetitive stuff we do day in, day out, week in, week out.

And then the day is gone, the week is over, and we roll it over into next week, again.


This one simple tip is one of the most effective Time Productivity tools I’ve ever used

It enables us to get more of the ‘stuff’ done in a shorter period of Time.

And ensures we have the Time for some of the more important things we’d like to do.

At the same time eradicating some of that unnecessary stuff clogging up our Time.

Simply put, it’s a great Time Creation Tool …

 

TimeChunking

Does your daily diary look like the picture above?  With KEY activity blocked out in your day.

Or is it empty, and fills up as you go along with all the other less important stuff, and everyone else’s stuff too?

There’s a great quote I love by Yogi Berra, a retired American Major League Baseball player, manager & coach – “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else”

So why not plan out the day a little more with what you want to do instead?

 

FIRST:  Save Time doing ALL the stuff

Very often we do a bit of email, have a meeting, do a bit of admin, pop to the shop, do some washing, etc

Yet this stop-start approach is costing us Time.

Research shows it can take anywhere between 14 to 26 minutes to reach the same level of concentration with an activity once we leave and come back to it.

And there is the practical Time spent in setting up and closing down for an activity.

 

Take email for example

You probably have to find a place, take your laptop out of the bag, switch it on & let it boot up, connect up, open the email app, maybe wait for the email to download, get focussed & start

And when finished, you close down the email app, shut down the laptop, put it back into the case, and leave.

Do this a few times a day and the Time adds up.

And this is just ONE activity.

 

So batch the ‘stuff’ activity

Why not sit down and do email once a day?

Have 3 hours on a Friday afternoon for clearing all the admin in one go.

Have a day of meetings rather than one a day for three days.

Do the supermarket shopping once for the week (even better done online – & you don’t end up buying all the other items you never knew you needed until you saw them on offer!)

Block a few hours out to blast through the housework all in one go – its done & out the way then.

 

SECOND:  Start by TimeChunking your most important activity

Don’t try to do everything at once, pick ONE thing you want/need to get done and haven’t got round to yet?

And then plan it into your diary before everything else.

Work out the best Time & days where you can protect a Chunk of Time to do this.

And allow everything else to fall in around it.

That’s it!

 

THIRD:  When you’re ready, and if you can, you may want to consider TimeChunking your days

Of course there will be some other things included in these days, but generally, fill your day with the same type of activity.

You may decide to make Tuesday’s & Thursday’s the only days you meet people, Friday as an office day for admin & email, Monday for planning and working on projects.

You get the idea.

This way you maintain your focus on one type of activity for longer instead of constantly task switching, and I guarantee will achieve more.

 

Work in TimeChunks of 1.5 to 3 hours at a Time where possible

One hour is not enough, simply because there is always ‘Time creep’, where some things over run, there’s an interruption, and the hour becomes forty minutes – not enough Time to really get something done.

Switch off your phone, email, and all other notifications, and close the door.

This is your Time, your protected Time to get something important done.

Everything and Everyone will still be there when you’re done, I can guarantee that!

I know someone who has written their first book over the last weeks by using this method, and they were busy before they started writing, as we all are.

So what activites are you going to Chunk together more, to get more of them done in less Time?

And what ONE thing are you going to schedule in your diary in 1.5 to 3 hour Time Chunks to get something important done over the coming weeks?