How to Find More Hours in Your Day

Time is something we all want more of. Time is more often a limiting factor in our lives that impacts our decisions – more so than money!

Money is something we can make more of, yet time is relatively limited (I say relatively, because some people get a tremendous amount in a short space of time, while for others, things may take longer).

Time has a lot to do with our stage of life too. I’ve always packed in as much as I can in a day, but when I became a mum for the first time, goodness did life change! An achievement for the day was having a shower and getting dressed!

That’s why I want to precursor this blog post by saying that it depends where you are in your stage of life, and what responsibilities you have.

You can “buy” some of your time back through outsourcing, but there are other ways to become more effective with your time.

Over the years I’ve read a lot about time management and tried out quite a few different ways to become more efficient with my time so I can get more done. In this post I’ll go through the 7 ways that I have found to be the most helpful in finding more hours in your day.

1. Create a Plan to Focus on

Think about and decide what area of your life that you want to improve, so you can focus on that. Do you need to get your Will sorted? Or, do you need to learn how to read a Profit & Loss Statement for your business? Do you want to read more, or cook healthier meals, or start a vege patch? There are always more tasks than time, so find out how to get more done in less time.

Once you have clarity on that, it makes the next steps much easier.

2. Prioritised List

This is probably the most powerful way to be more efficient and get more done. Have a list of things that you need to do, figure out how to do them (and who can help you), and then get stuck in! Once you have completed each task, tick it off. It’s extremely rewarding to see the things that you have been doing.

Have you ever come to the end of your day and thought to yourself “where did the day go, and what did I actually do and get done”? This will help you with that!

Break the tasks done as much as you can. Writing down “learn about Facebook ads” is a huge task, so the first step there could be, “research how Facebook ads work and who teaches them”, or “ask colleagues what they do with Facebook ads”. You might want to buy an online program, hire a coach, or do some online research.

There are different ways to do the things you want and need to do, so as you think of them, write them down. It will mean your To Do List will grow, but at least you will be clearer on what you need to do.

The task list also needs to be aligned to the Plan that you created though, otherwise your thoughts and actions will become pretty scattered, and it will make the next step easier.

3. Batch your Tasks

By this I mean grouping similar tasks together. This may sometimes look like multi-tasking, because, depending on what you’re doing, there are breaks that need to happen before you can continue the task.

For example, I do a monthly cooking day on a Sunday, where I cook up meals for lunches and dinners and then put them into Tupperware containers and into the fridge or freezer. I also meal plan and prep as much as I can. Sometimes there is cooking time, where I can start working on the next item, or I can go and fold the laundry and put it away, or do some cleaning.

When batching I find it easier to combine the tasks that need “your brain” together (like writing blog posts, recording podcasts, or writing newsletters and social media posts), and then those that need mainly “physical effort” (like cooking, gardening and housework).

This way, you aren’t taxing your mental or physical energy by swapping and changing a lot.

4. Ask for Help

This one isn’t always easy, but it becomes necessary, especially when you can see your task list getting longer and longer. You may have to let go of how things get done (like how the dishwasher is stacked, or how the washing is hung out), but if your kids are old enough to help, or your partner can help, then definitely ask them to do some things around the house to help out.

Another one is carpooling school drop off and pick up. The school day feels so short, so it’s difficult to really get into things when your brain knows it has a short period of time to do something – especially if it’s something where you need to think strategically. I do this, where another mum and I will swap around taking each other’s kids to school, or picking them up. The kids love it too, as they get to have fun in the car with their friend on the way to or from school!

Not always an easy one, but definitely worth getting your family into the habit of being (truly) helpful!

5. Schedule in whitespace

When I say “schedule it”, I mean it – put it into your calendar!

This may seem counter-intuitive when it comes to talking about generating more time in your day, but one of the reasons we often just do “filler” tasks is because we aren’t clear on what it is we really need to be doing.

Having some empty time to just relax and maybe even go for a walk is great for being inspired and getting ideas on what you want to do and the areas of your life and business that you want to change.

If we’re always “busy being busy” there is no room for anything by busy-ness!

Take some time out, feel refreshed, energised and inspired so you can be more productive.

6. Delegate or Outsource Where You Can

This depends on the amount of money you have and the time of life that you're in. Some things you can't do this for, but write out the things that you really don't like doing, and see if you can outsource them (or delegate them to your partner or kids!).

A classic one is getting a cleaner. I’m certainly not the poster child for this one, as I don’t have a cleaner. If you can find someone you like and trust and it works for you, then go for it. I work at home most of the time, so the one time I had a cleaner come, I found they got in my way more than they helped (plus the chemical smell!).

Being in business, a Virtual Assistant can be a game changer. Again, write down the things in your business that are repetitive and start to write down what you do and how you do it, so you could hand it to someone else to actually do.

Another one is that you don’t always have to do everything. My daughter’s school often has events where we bring a plate. I always cook or bake something for these, and then I go overboard and end up doing something savoury and something sweet. Rather than making something myself, I could just buy something ready made! This is still an area I’m working on too.

7. Get Enough Sleep

Being able to function at your best is important for making the most of the time you have in a day.

Think about those times where you are overtired and heading towards exhaustion. Your patience is less, you may find yourself snapping at your kids and partner, and your ability to be creative is severely diminished.

Whatever amount of sleep you need to get in order to function at your best, aim for that. The average is 8 hours per night, so if you're not sure, start there. Just think about how much calmer you are and how much more patience and creativity you have after a good night's sleep. You will find yourself much more productive!

There are other ways to manage time, and there are apps and books to help with it too. I like to keep things simple, and an old-fashioned pen and paper work well for writing a task list and then ticking it off :-)