As a creative business owner, I’m willing to bet you never have enough time in the day to get it all done. New designs, fulfilling customer orders, marketing your business, and not to mention eating/sleeping/breathing leaves you clamoring for that “extra hour or two” for the things you really want to do…like sitting in a bubble bath with a juicy novel, rocking an open mic, or flowing your way through Vinyasa Yoga.
Is there really a way to bend time to make space for things you really want to do? Luckily there is!
Here are some fun ways to carve out more time for things you love:
Make a Time Wish List
What if you had a magic extra hour every day – what would you do with it? I bet you’re either stuck for an answer or have so many answers that you can’t narrow it down to just one. By the time you decide, that extra hour is gone.
Make a list of ways you’d like to spend your time and then prioritize by which one lights you up the most. When you start bending time, you’ll know exactly what to do with those precious hours.
Find “Would you Rather” Time
The first step to understanding the best use of your time is by tracking where it’s going now. I know…that sounds utterly tedious. But, I guarantee you are wasting precious time toiling on Facebook, plodding through email, or eating ice cream while watching Downton Abbey…time you may want to spending elsewhere…and didn’t even realize you had.
Spend one day this week charting everything you do, broken down into 30-minute increments. This will give you an idea of where you are spending your time and where you’d rather spend it elsewhere. For example, if you’ve spent 45 minutes in a Facebook chat room for other handmade business owners, decide if you would you rather do this OR go take that Pilates class you’ve been swearing you’d get to. You may even flip flop between your choices, but knowing where and when you’d “rather” spend your time will help you feel more fulfilled.
Embrace Unexpected Time
Stuck in traffic? Waiting in line at Target? Sitting through another soccer practice? All of these situations present opportunities for you to select something off your time wish list with a little preparation. Cart a journal in your purse to jot down ideas for your next design. Bring a book you’ve been dying to read. Schedule a hiking or walking meeting (also known as ‘hitting a double.’)
Just Do It
Sometimes you’ll try everything you can to bend time and still feel like you come up short. In that case, just do it. Make the time and everything else will fall into place.
How does this work…you might ask? Once commit to carving time out for something, you’ll subconsciously become more productive at your other activities to accommodate. For example, if you spend 8 hours per day working on your business and decide to carve out one of those hours for a meditative walk, you’ll return refreshed and revitalized and more ready to tackle those projects. Soon, work will feel like play, and you won’t believe how much you can accomplish in such a short day.
Now that you are an official time bender let us know in the comments what you plan to do with all those extra hours you just made!
