Time Management – How To Get Your Life Back

Of all the things we may have wanted to be when we were kids — an astronaut, the Prime Minister, a pirate — one thing we never entertained was being a Jack – as in all work and no play. But for many of us, it is an unwanted achievement we are close to fulfilling. If that sounds unwelcomely familiar, what can you do to get your life back?

More time would be a good start. More time allows you to de-Jack. More time allows you to relax or to pursue activities that always seem to fall to the bottom of your life’s priorities.

But how can you gain more of this scarce resource? Belle About Town spoke to Ian Child, author of Your Own Personal Time Machine, a guide to getting your life back, and here are his suggestions to regain control of your time, and life:

1. Keep a time journal

Until you know how much time you’re spending on what, you won’t be able to spot the obvious places for clawing back some time. A time journal allows you to see precisely how you’re spending your time, and (just like keeping a food diary), it nearly always throws up some surprises. You don’t need to do it for long – just keep an hourly, high-level journal for a fortnight, and you’ll quickly get a handle on where the lion’s share of your time is going. The results may shock you.

2. Prioritise your time

Have you noticed how you somehow manage to get everything done the day before you go on holiday? You’ll beaver away, you’ll delegate, and you’ll defer. But you never don’t go on holiday. Better still, there was no disaster because things weren’t done perfectly or were delivered late. Welcome to the magic of your diary’s immovable object, the event that will always happen no matter what. So, shift your thinking and create more immovable objects in your diary – time that is just for you. You time that is non-negotiable and occurs regardless of any other events around it, rather than one that takes place only if you’ve any time left. You’ll be amazed at how you’ll automatically do everything else that truly needs to get done if you take a non-negotiable stance on prioritising time that is for you.

3. Outsource your life

Outsourcing work is an excellent way of freeing up your time, but why stop at work tasks? Outsourcing your daily routine can free up far more time, but for some reason, we tend to think that WE have to do everything. You can easily save a couple of hours by grocery shopping online rather than dragging yourself around a supermarket for a couple of hours, yet it costs less than a fiver to have your supermarket of choice bring your shopping to your door. Hiring a gardener would be a little pricier, as would getting a part-time cleaner. But if it gets you back some all-too-precious you time, who’s to say it’s not a good investment? The trick is not to think you’re saving money by doing these things yourself but that instead, you’re buying back some time just for you. And what price would you put on that?

4. Make chores a family event

Now this won’t necessarily save you time. Getting the kids involved in household chores may not be as effective as you whizzing around doing everything yourself, but it will be more fun; in this instance we’re more interested in quality of time.

The list of chores is almost endless, from cooking and cleaning to helping out in the garden, washing the car, or tackling DIY projects (kids love to fix stuff). But remember to keep it fun – you don’t want any youngsters up a chimney

5. Discover the joys of batch cooking

Ok, joy might be overstating it, but it’s amazing how much time you can save by doubling or tripling up on quantities when cooking meals. We may like to think we ring the culinary changes, but we tend to stick to cooking the same few meals, week in, week out. Cooking twice as much doesn’t take twice as long, plus a defrosted meal takes a fraction of the time to prepare and saves you time. As ever, when it comes to saving time, a little planning can go a long way.

So, there we have it, a few ideas that will hopefully return a few hours to you to do with as you please: write that novel; learn a language; get fitter; watch the MCU movies in chronological order; or whatever it is that helps you feel like you have your life back. The trick is to free up extra time by working smarter and also creating more shared activities.

Ultimately, though, the biggest impact comes from prioritising your time rather than fitting it in after everything else. If you can do that, you’ll be amazed at how the rest of your life will accommodate it – you just need to take that all-important first step.