What did you do with your extra hour
As the clocks changed on Sunday morning I started thinking how I would use my extra hour?
Sleeping in, an extra hour sounded great, but if like me – I only seem to benefit from a good nights sleep if I go to bed early – so cross that one off.
Could get up and go to the gym, this sounds a good option – but decided to keep this as a ‘possible’.
You never get back the time that has passed, so in an attempt not to waste it … my mind wondered and started thinking how can I get the most out of an extra hour?
‘ Can you make time for yourself? … ‘ Wouldn’t it be great if I could. Although this sort of thing only happens on TV – ‘Back to the Future?
I thought if I could undertake a ‘task’ quicker I could make time – that is, if it took me say 3 hours to clean all the windows in our flat – is there anything I could do differently which would mean I could clean the windows in considerably less time? Possibly giving me 30 mins to an extra hour free?
What could I do to achieve this?
1. Pay someone else to do it for me – this is a great one, although I’d probably spend the time watching them…
2. Turn the task into something you love to do – Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance and makes time fly by, which would create time for you as you’d get it done faster than if you didn’t enjoy it.
3. Break your task into packages and do the hardest work first – We all know we move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Take on the difficult elements first, particularly in the mornings, that’s when most of us have the most energy and the least distractions – it’ll feel like you’ve made progress and made time for yourself.
4. Select a number of routine tasks and practice them intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes. Ritualise practice – I find will and discipline can be slightly overrated. Save time by ritualise your tasks so that over time you do really end up wasting time or energy thinking about them.
emm … it slowly dawns on me that there are lots of ways to make time, besides the fact that I’ve just spend my hour thinking about this.
Never mind the clocks go forward later this year – that’s two hours I can gain … in the future?
Photo credit: Βethan / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND