Giving Yourself More Free Time

"Those who fail to distinguish
The nonessential from the essential
And the essential from the nonessential
Will, in feeding the wrong thoughts,
Fail to attain the essential."
-the Buddha, Dhammapada

How often do you find yourself struggling to find time to do the things you actually want to do? I've had many days where I feel like I've been busy all day but haven't gotten anything done. Why is that? It's because every now and then, I forget to clear out the clutter from my life, not just from my physical possessions, but from my schedule. If you just follow a few simple steps, you can find some extra time for yourself that was hidden behind that pesky schedule clutter.

Do things like checking your email or your Facebook less often. If you check it once a day, or even once every other day, what will you be missing? When you send an email, how much time do you expect to pass before you get a response? A day, two days in some cases? Email is not the way that people send urgent information so don't check it as though you're going to miss dinner plans :) Imagine how much time you could gain by checking your email once a day rather than 5 times. Probably a good half hour at least.

Do less. It sounds simple but I believe that this is often the most overlooked step. When you say to yourself, "I need to do THIS and THIS and THIS", ask why for each one. It's a very simple but powerful question, Why? What would happen if I didn't? Often times you'll realize that your doing something because it's a habit, or because you THINK you need to not because you actually NEED to.

Decide at the beginning of your day which big thing you wish to accomplish for the day. A well-planned day should never have more than one or two life-altering tasks in it. Notice I said life-altering, not tasks that you perceive as life altering, because those should have been taken care of in step 2. The success of your day should hinge on the completion of this task. It should be the first thing that you wake up and do in the morning. Get it done quickly and enjoy your day while still feeling that sense of accomplishment.

Give yourself less time to get stuff done. The reason certain things take so long to do is because we believe that it takes that long. One of my favorite tools for getting stuff done quickly is this question, "What would I do if this were due in 2 hours? How about an 1 hour? How about 1/2 an hour?" This forces you to decide what is most important with the task at hand and not get bogged down with the details. Details are what make a 1/2 hour cleaning project turn into an all day event. Once you've decided what you WOULD do if you had a very limited amount of time, then DO IT in that amount of time. Why waste your day on a task that should only take 10 minutes? :)

Don't give yourself busywork. You've just cleaned up your schedule. Don't fill it in with little things that you feel like you have to do (see step 2). Quitting activity is a tough habit to break. Don't let your feeling that you SHOULD be doing something take away from time you could be doing something for fun. Read a book, watch a movie, learn something new, take up a hobby. The best way to keep yourself from straying from this system is to enjoy the time that you gain from it.

Smile, breathe, and go slowly.