How To Find Yourself More Time

In the endless cycle from sleep to work to sleep again, it can feel like you’ve actually got no time to do the important things. Here’s my main methods of how to find yourself more time. 

Wake Up Earlier

Sounds awful at first but ultimately you’ll feel so much better. When you wake up earlier, sleep a little less, or just go to bed a little earlier, you find time. In the morning, when no-one is awake or you have more time to get ready for work, you can take things easier. The relaxed build up to work means you’re less stressed, can concentrate on doing the things you need to do better. When you perform activities better, you do them quicker and find yourself time.

At the beginning waking up earlier will be a challenge but that’s why you need to have the second method of how to find yourself more time.

Morning Routine

Having a morning routine, no matter how brief, can produce a level of time saving that you cannot fathom! 

Every night before you go to bed, if you know in your mind exactly what you need to do the very moment you wake up, you’ll be out of bed quicker. Having a morning routine allows you to automatically go through the steps and gradually fully wake up instead of trying to wake up whilst lying in bed. You lie in bed, thinking about what you need to do, calculate if you have time to sleep a little bit more, etc. It’s not helpful. 

Consider this, if you knew to do this exact routine the very moment you hear your alarm and turn it off:

• Roll out of bed
• Do six push ups
• Stretch in the air
• Drink water
• Use the toilet
• Sit in silence on the floor for 2 minutes
• Read 
• Get dressed
• Head outside to run/walk/cycle/breathe

They are simple, straight forward, little steps to eventually get you outside active to truly wake you up. There’s no real thinking involved but it gets you up, active and able to efficiently make your way through activities you need to do. 

Your morning routine will help to create more time because there’s no waiting around for your brain to wake or to figure out what should have been done. You just do. No waiting around.

Replace Habits

We all have bad habits that suck up our time and then we attempt to form new habits. But then the new habits take our time up more, and we don’t shed the old habits. Eventually it’s too difficult to maintain both and we know which one disappears in the end.

Personally, I just try to re-frame how I look at the new habit I’m trying to form. There’s a visualisation of what it will achieve, but more so what it is replacing.

We all want to do more in our day but can easily forget that it’s not really possible. We can do better though.

You need to remove an activity from your day to add one. Finding more time is actually about replacing inefficient, non-productive, life draining things. Replace them with energy filled, positive, inspiring ones.

By visualising in your mind the good habit physically pushing out the bad one, it becomes easier to make better use of your time.