Are You Time-Poor?

One of the most common issues we all face is ‘finding’ enough time. But as we all know, we can’t ‘find’ time – instead we have to prioritise and ‘make’ time in our diaries. It’s all a matter of how serious you are about moving ahead and what you are prepared to give up. Nights in front of Netflix need to (mostly) go, as does mindless scrolling. I’m pretty confident we can all reallocate at least an hour a day out of twenty-four to pursue our dreams. There are some great techniques for doing this, but firstly ponder whether you are using time scarcity as an excuse for procrastination.

Procrastination is often a mask for deeper issues, rather than a result of poor time management. It could be fear of failure (or success surprisingly), perfectionism, or lack of motivation. By blaming time, we avoid taking responsibility for our actions and fail to address the root causes of our procrastination. Time is a finite resource that can be learned to be managed effectively, it cannot always be used as a scapegoat as to why we don’t succeed in our goals.

Successful individuals prioritize tasks, set realistic goals, and break them down into manageable steps. They recognize that procrastination only leads to increased stress, missed opportunities, and compromised results.

The first step to managing your time is to have a weekly diary broken into half hour increments. Keep a log of everything do you across a week – and be ruthlessly honest. Then, put a number from 1 to 5 next to each half hour according to how enjoyable the task was. You may be surprised how much time you spend in totality on jobs that aren’t enjoyable and that can either be delegated out, trimmed back or dropped completely. Then, find where you could substitute an hour a day into ‘wasted time’ on jobs you disliked or that were non-productive.

Some time blocks are non-negotiable. Quality time with family, exercise, meditation, shopping for nutritious food – but many of these could incorporate listening to inspiring talks or training simultaneously. Once you see where your time is going – allocate your hour out of the ‘negotiable’ tasks. Cleaning can wait, Netflix can wait, that friend who always pulls you down when you talk about your new journey – they can wait too!

Most of us were working full time when we started this gig, and also had young families and financial commitments or were caring for ageing parents. It’s a juggle of course – but self discipline and restraint pays off! The image below always did the trick for me when I felt myself procrastinating for ANY reason! Because my WHY was to have freedom to work from home, choose my roles, have time to learn and continue to grow. What is YOUR 'why' and have you defined it?