Adding Time to our Day

If you’re anything like me, you may constantly find yourself thinking “If I only had more time…” More time to spend with family, more time to spend with friends, more time to spend learning, more time to spend on my professional growth, more time to work on big projects, more time to invest in my hobbies. On and on it goes. But we all know, each of us is limited to the same 24 hours a day. But what if I told you I have found some ways to put more time into our days?!?! Hold your Nobel prize nominations – what I’m about to share is not especially groundbreaking, but these simple things are very impactful in the way we can each gain more time in our days.??

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In the dozens of 1:1s I engage in each month, one of the most common discussion points is “how can I spend more time doing [insert topic].” Our personal and professional lives increasingly become busier as we deepen our tenure in our careers. We all yearn for more time to put towards specific activities, but it seems almost impossible to find it. Here are some of the best hacks I have learned about, shared with others, and applied myself to get time back each day:?

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Reduce or perfect time spent on big items – If we each were to log our total time spent in a week on the major categories of tasks, chances are we would find that we spend more time than we realize watching tv, scrolling through social media, emailing, texting, and driving. Of course, there may be many other categories as well, but all these chunks provide opportunities to consider:?

·???????? Is this a valuable use of time??

·???????? Am I using this time as productively as I could be??

·???????? Is there room to reduce time spent on this thing??

·???????? What would I rather use this time for??

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Find gap time and use it – Gap time is the idle time we spend in our days and weeks that isn’t used for anything in particular. Think about driving mindlessly to and from locations as a fitting example of gap time. For some, a drive is used to process the day, buffer between commitments, and simply therapy (there’s nothing like a good long drive with the windows down and music turned up!). But for most of us, the commute to work or home from work is time that could be used more productively. Great options include listening to books or podcasts, holding an audio call (hands free please) with a colleague, family member or friend, or even doing some creative thinking. Finding ways to maximize gap time adds a material amount of time back into our days.??

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Using tools and technology to our advantage – Tools and technology have been one of the greatest advances in any pursuit. And just like the industrial revolution advanced production, the world of digital technology is providing us with time savings opportunities left and right. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the game with options like ChatGPT to help plan trips, break down complicated concepts or even spark creative thinking. Other tools like Microsoft CoPilot are shaping the way we read strings of emails, messages, and build decks. Not to mention Siri, Google, and Alexa helping shape the way we automate and capture information by voice command. Using the tools at our disposal is a wonderful way to exponentially return time to our days.??

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Make it personal – Like with financial planning, organization, and prioritization – the approaches taken are deeply personal. The outcomes we solve for, gain satisfaction from, and the experiences we consider are each unique to every one of us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t borrow from other people’s approaches and learnings. Combining the lessons with our aims, and the gains with our goals will allow each of us to architect great ways to help ourselves, uniquely, put more time back in our days for the items we want more time for. Make it personal and make it yours ????

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While we each may be limited to the same 24 hours each day, those that are most satisfied with how productive their days and weeks are have likely applied the above concepts into their planning and habits . They have used tools well, they have reduced and perfected the big items and they have intentionally filled their gap time with the items they personally care about. Some call it “managing minutes” and others call it “using time wisely”. Whatever we do though, we must make decisions in pursuit of what we want to get out of each day and week.??

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"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." - Michael Altshuler