Hasta La Ideas

Today we welcome a guest post and many terrific suggestions from Annabel Candy who regularly blogs about productivity and self improvement at Get In the Hot Spot.

How often do you hear people say they don’t have enough time? Like me, you may have used the “not enough time” excuse as a reason for not following your dream.

We all have goals, the problem is making time for them in our busy schedules.

For years, I wanted to write but didn’t. I often used the “not enough time” excuse and thought it was true. I didn’t have time to write because I was running a business and raising kids.

But my life was totally immersed in doing, not being, and the more I did, the more unhappy I became.

Until I decided to do something about it, accept the blame, and prioritize better.

First, I worked out where my time went.

I wrote down everything I did and noticed my days were cluttered. A typical entry would be: 10 minute personal call, 10 minutes planning meals, 20 minute business call, 15 minutes e-mailing.

By lunchtime I often felt so frazzled I just slumped in front of the TV with Dr. Phil and rejoiced that at least I wasn’t as messed up as his guests.

After a week, I made a pie chart showing where my time went, where I could save time, and what I could remove. I recommend doing this as a visual guide to see how your time is spent.

There were 10 main time traps I noted and what I needed to do to control them:

1. The Phone – I don’t have to answer it every time it rings.
2. The Internet – Log in an few times a day for specific purposes only.
3. Housework – Let some things slide. The state of my house is not an indication of my emotional well-being and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
4. Friends and Family – Manage them into times when I want to see them or socialize. Don’t let them encroach.
5. Cooking and Shopping – Streamline them, bulk buy and cook.
6. Sleep – Try cutting out one hour of sleep. I’ll probably function fine and gain an extra hour a day.
7. Commuting to work – Can I cut out the commute and work from home a few days a week?
8. Reading – Reading about writing, travel or starting a business is good unless it takes up time when I could have been doing them.
9. TV – Limit it to the shows I actually enjoy. Never channel hop.
10. Dreaming – At some point I have to stop dreaming about following my passion and start doing it.

Stop yearning for more time and work out how to create it with these four steps:

1. Make a pie chart that reflects your tracked time.
2. Work out which time traps are stopping you from following your dreams.
3. Write a weekly schedule for yourself and stick to it. Make sure you log at least three sessions for following your dream.
4. Schedule times in your calendar for the things you want to do and follow through.

No more “not enough time” excuses needed.