Women's Success Coach Podcast

8: Get the Most Out Of The Time Your Have

February 16, 2023 Karen Vincent
Women's Success Coach Podcast
8: Get the Most Out Of The Time Your Have
Show Notes Transcript

Episode Overview:

In this episode, I am talking about time. Do you wish you could “create more time”? Who doesn’t??? The reality is that although we cannot change the 24 hours in a day that we all have, we can “create time” in our days by adjusting both how we think about them, and by how we approach them and in this podcast episode, I am going to give you 6 strategies to help you do this.

What I Cover:

Your most productive day and why.

What is Parkinson's Law.

6 strategies for getting the most out of your time.

  • Strategy #1: Work in smaller time chunks.  If you give yourself 1 hour, you will take one hour. However, if you give yourself 30 minutes, you will get the same amount of work done in 30 minutes.


  • Strategy #2: Eliminate distractions. Turn off notifications, close out windows on your computer, move your phone away from you, tell people not to disturb you, etc.


  • Strategy #3: Outsource the things that do not require your expertise. This is not always  possible from a financial perspective, however, if possible, doing this will create more time.


  • Strategy #4: Batch your work and tasks. Whether cleaning your home, running errands, managing your family, working at a job, or working in your business, try to batch similar tasks together when possible.


  • Strategy #5: Set up rituals. Sometimes having specific rituals around tasks can help you “get in the zone” or get into a flow state so that you can work more efficiently and with more focus.


  • Strategy #6: Unclutter your environment. Living and working in an unorganized environment will result in wasted time. 


Let's Take Some Action:


Consider which of these strategies may have the biggest impact on your productivity and then I want you to start implementing it as soon as possible. 

  • Strategy #1: Work in smaller time chunks. 
  • Strategy #2: Eliminate distractions. 
  • Strategy #3: Outsource the things that do not require your expertise.  
  • Strategy #4: Batch your work and tasks. 
  • Strategy #5:Set up rituals. 
  • Strategy #6: Unclutter your environment.


Once you implement one of these and start to feel like it is part of your normal routine, consider adding in other strategies until you feel like you have maxed out your productivity. Once you do that…have fun planning how you will spend all your extra time!!!







Useful Resources:

Do you worry too much, overthink, assume the worst-case scenarios, spend a lot of time focusing on negative things that have happened, or discredit positive things happening? If so, you are dealing with the human brain we have all been given and you are not alone.

The good news is, you can change this and it may not take as long as you may think! If you want a free resource that will help you examine your thinking patterns, and change those that are not serving you, grab my 5 Common Thought Distortions Guide HERE.


Let’s stay in touch:

Website: www.KarenVincentSolutions.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenvincentsolutions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenVincentSolutions

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenVCoach



Karen:

Welcome to the Women's Success Coach Podcast. A podcast created to inspire growth and to help you learn, achieve, and evolve in your life ongoing regardless of your age. I'm your host, certified coach, and licensed therapist Karen Vincent, and I'm here to guide you and provide you with concrete tips and strategies you can implement in your life. I'm also here to inspire you, challenge you, and cheer you on so that you can create the life of your dreams and beyond. In today's podcast episode, I'm talking about time. Do you wish you could quote unquote, create more time? Who doesnt?. The reality is that although we cannot change the 24 hours in a day, we all have, we can"create time" in our days by adjusting both how we think about them and by how we approach them. In this podcast episode, I'm going to give you six strategies to help you do this. Well, hello there friend, I'm going to jump right into the topic of time since this is a Shorty episode, and I want to give you as much information as I can today and as little time as possible. To start, I want you to consider how often you say things like,"I wish I had more time", or"There's never enough time". While the same 24 hours exists in each day. How we use our time matters. Do you know what the most productive day is for most people? It's the day before they go on vacation. Why is this? Well, it's because when you're gearing up to go on vacation, you approach the day and even the week differently. You are so focused on wanting to wrap things up so that you can go on vacation and not have to worry about work, that as a result, you work more efficiently and with more focus. On other days, you may tell yourself that you'll get to what you can get to, and whatever you don't get to will go on your to-do list for the following day. Or, you may tell yourself that you'll get it done before the end of the week. And when you do this, you tell yourself both consciously and unconsciously, that you have more time and therefore you take more time to get things done. This is the result of what's known as Parkinson's Law. And Parkinson's Law States, work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. If you give yourself a day to complete a one hour task, there's a good chance that you'll take the entire day because you'll overthink it, allow for too many distractions, or stress about it instead of just getting it done. What if you could be as productive as you are the day before you go on vacation every single day? What if you could get two days worth of work done in one day? Think about how much more you could accomplish in a day, a week, a month. Oh my gosh. How about in a year? The reality is that you can do this. It's a matter of how you think about time and how you approach time. It's a matter of retraining both your mind and your work habits so that you can get more done in 24 hours than you currently do. So now I'm going to share six strategies with you to help you do this. If you can, grab a pen and paper and write them down as I go through each one. But don't worry if you can't do this now, all this information will be in the show notes for you to reference later. Strategy one. Work in smaller chunks of time. As I just shared with Parkinson's Law, you'll use as much time as you give yourself to do something. If you give yourself one hour, you'll take one hour. However, if you give yourself 30 minutes, you'll get the same amount of work done in 30 minutes. Approaching your day like this means you can double what you get done in a day. So what I want you to do is write out the tasks you have for your day, and then assign what you think is a reasonable timeframe to get each one done. Then, I want you to go back and cut that assigned timeframe in half. Yikes. Right? But trust me. Cut it in half, assign it to a time block in your calendar, and protect that time at all costs. Focus your energy only on the task at hand during this time, and blow your own mind when you see how much you can get done. Strategy two. Eliminate distractions. Turn off notifications. Close out windows on your computer. Move your phone away from you. Tell people not to disturb you. Do what you have to do in order to be able to focus 100% on the task at hand. How often do you instinctively pick up your phone and look at it for no apparent reason? This habit is costing you a lot of valuable time. When you task switch, there's a residual focus on the task that you were switching from, so that your attention doesn't automatically go back to the task at hand 100%. There's also research that suggests it takes up to 23 minutes to refocus after getting distracted. That's a lot of wasted time. I like to combine this strategy with strategy one. I set the timer on my phone for a smaller chunk of time, and then I place my phone away from my desk. I work 100% focused on the task at hand, and when the timer goes off, it gives me an opportunity to get up and stretch before I go on to my next task. It's just me against the clock, and my goal is always to beat the clock. Strategy three. Outsource the things that do not require your expertise. Now, I know this is not possible for everyone or for every task from a financial perspective however, if possible, doing this will create more. If you are working on something for eight hours per day and add in someone else to help for another eight, you now have 16 hours worth of work getting done during the same eight hours on the clock. Whether it's outsourcing things like going to the grocery store or cleaning your home, or outsourcing business tasks like managing social media, emails or scheduling. Consider what your time is worth and if it makes financial sense to create more time for yourself by hiring help to do some of your daily or weekly tasks. Especially if there's someone who's better at them, and or can do them more efficiently. Strategy number four. Batch your work in tasks. Whether cleaning your home, running errands, managing your family, working at a job, or working on your business, try to batch similar tasks together when possible. This way you can get your brain focused on one type of work, which will help it work more efficiently, and ultimately save you time. I know it's tempting, but if you're working from home, don't try to cook dinner, do laundry, or pick up the house while you're supposed to be working on a project for your boss. If there are household things that need to get done on a particular day, batch them together and assign them a time block in your calendar rather than trying to fit them in around trips to the bathroom or randomly taking breaks to go work on a little at a time. Remember, task switching is inefficient. Instead, block your time for one task, make that time less than you initially think you need, and then focus on the task at hand. And in doing this, you'll start to notice that you get more done in less time. Strategy number five. Set up rituals. Sometimes having specific rituals around tasks can help you get in the zone, or get into a flow state so that you can work more efficiently and with more focus. This could involve having a certain type of music playing in the background, working in a certain place, lighting a candle, or diffusing essential oils, or doing something physical to raise your energy right before you sit down to work. Creating rituals like this helps to cue your mind that it's time to focus and get work done. So consistency with any of these rituals does make a difference. Strategy number six. Unclutter your environment. Living and working in an unorganized environment will result in wasted time. An unorganized or cluttered environment can be distracting, can cause stress, and can also cause you to waste time because you can't quickly find things or access things. Taking a few minutes at the end of each day to organize both your living and working space will help you save time in the long run. Doing this can also reduce stress and improve your focus. So there you have it, six strategies to help you get the most out of the time you have. That was a lot to pack into this shorty episode, and as we do in all my episodes, I want you to take action on the information I provided. So let's get to it. I'm going to review each of the six strategies one more time, and as I'm doing this, I want you to consider which of these strategies may have the biggest impact on your productivity, and then I want you to start implementing it as soon as possible. Ideally within the next 24 hours. Strategy one. Work in smaller time chunks. Take the time you think you need to accomplish something. Cut it in half. And focus in during those time chunks. Strategy two. Eliminate distractions. Multitasking is not a thing. It's called task switching, and it can cost you a lot of time. So eliminate any distractions you can, and focus in on the one thing you're working on at any particular time. Strategy three. Outsource the things that do not require your expertise. Strategy four. Batch your work and tasks. Group similar items together, and schedule them in your calendar. Strategy five. Set up rituals. Have music, a calendar, a certain place you work that's consistent. That cues your brain that it's time to get to work and it's time to focus. And finally, Strategy number six. Unclutter your environment. Have a clean space that you live in, that you work in that makes you feel good, and that allows you to be efficient and find things easily. And once you implement one of these strategies and start to feel like it's part of your normal routine, consider adding in other strategies until you feel like you've maxed out your productivity. And once you do that, have fun planning how you'll spend all your extra time. So that's what I have for you today. But before I go, I want to make sure you know, I also have a blog. So if you like reading and want some more tips and strategies that will help you with things like managing your mindset, setting and achieving your goals, managing limiting beliefs, creating healthy success habits, challenging yourself beyond what you believe is currently possible, and lots of other topics related to creating a life of success, ongoing growth and fulfillment. Go to www.karenvincentsolutions.com/blog and check out my blog. Again, it's www.karenvincentsolutions.com/blog. That's a wrap. You should be proud of yourself for investing time in you, which is so critical for success and for overall life fulfillment. I look forward to having you join me for my next episode. And in the meantime, go click that subscribe button so you'll know when it's released, and you can also follow me on Instagram at Best Boss Lady Life that's at Best Boss Lady Life on Instagram. Also, remember that whatever it is that you're working on, you've got this and I'm here cheering you on.