5 Ways To Make Time When you Don’t Have Time
How do you make time when you feel like you don’t have any time at all? One question that seems to come up a lot is how do I make time for all of the things I do. My answer is that I do it the same way you do. Everyone makes time for things they want. If you read my post about making time for yoga, you might remember me mentioning that time is one thing I don’t think I have. When I take a minute to reevaluate what I’m doing with my time, I realize I do have time. It is often the way we spend it that determines whether we have time to do something or not.
When I was in high school ages ago, I lived near the beach. High School started before 8 AM. As I recall, no teenager wants to get up at any hour of the morning for anything. BUT, the surfers would be up at their own free will to get out there and catch the best waves. Back then, surf teams weren’t really a thing, so there wasn’t a coach waiting for them to arrive before dawn. My point is that if you truly love doing something or you’re feeling ambitious, you will do it. Like goals. Have you read about my Mirror Mindset?
Where Do You Find Extra Minutes In The Day?
I have a few ways that I go about finding time throughout my day. I don’t always use all of them, but I do choose 1 or 2 when I feel like my days are flying by, and I get nothing done.
My 5 Time Finders
1. Write Down Everything You Do Each Day
I have heard career coaches mention this more than once. It must work if more than one person is doing it, right? So I did it. I got on my computer, set up a table in Google Docs, and wrote down everything I did every half hour. This will give you a good idea as to what in the world you do all day. Surprisingly, you will find holes in your day. You might be doing things like watching Netflix or HGTV in my case. I love a good Netflix marathon, but you could be doing something else more productive. There are days when the sofa is calling my name and I need it, but if I want to get things done I know I’ve got to take action and get off my bum.
2. Embrace Google Calendar
I’ve had some experience with Google Calendar through work, but I think when my 4th daughter came along, I had a hard time remembering things. Just too much was going on. While I keep an actual planner that I write in, I have really gotten into using Google Calendar on my phone and sync it with my laptop. I set reminders, alerts, events, and color code them all. I don’t forget half as much as I used to, but I make sure I schedule in my time because I can easily get carried away with the kids or anything else and forget.
3. Sneak In Time When Your Children Don’t Need You
I find myself feeling guilty if I’m not paying attention to my children at all times. For some reason, many parents feel as if they have to engage with their children all of the time. The truth is, we don’t! How will they learn to be independent adults if they have us by their side day in and day out? The younger our kids are, the more we may feel that way, but I often find my two-year-old playing away all by herself. She doesn’t need me to come up with a game or play along, and that’s okay. I often will plop myself in the middle of the room where they are playing, or sit outside while they play so I can still be present while I’m doing my thing.
4. Have A Morning or Bedtime Routine For Your Kids
I will admit that a bedtime routine is not my strength. It can give you a good chunk of time in the evening, but ours can be hit or miss depending on the time of year. It doesn’t help that most of us are night owls.
If you can get your children on board with an activity or something engaging when they get up in the morning, then that could give you a few minutes to yourself.
One way I get back some time is when my husband comes home from work. If I have dinner ready when he walks in the door, he can easily come in and take over with the kids. Then, I can slip away. Another mom has every Friday night all to herself. Maybe there’s a few evenings you can schedule in for yourself?
5. Get Up Earlier
There’s nothing like a quiet morning to yourself. Like I mentioned, I am not an early morning person. Getting up earlier one or two days a week could be a game changer! That is something that I want to try.
Which Time Finders Do I Do?
I keep telling myself to get up a few hours earlier a few days a week. I could accomplish so much. If I had a better bedtime routine, I’d probably be more likely to get up. In the meantime, I take stock of what I do all day, every day, every few months. I use Google Calendar and a planner to schedule just about everything, but sneaking in moments throughout the day is probably what I do best. If I see the opportunity of time, I jump on it.
What Will You Do To Find More Time?
What will you do to find more time in your day? Is there something you already do? If you have another idea, share them in the comments below. We can all use some new ideas sometimes. Either way, I hope you get to discover small moments throughout your day that you didn’t know you had, and fill it in with something great!
As always, thank you for visiting my blog! I hope to see you back again for more of “The Adaptable Mom.”Want more Adaptable Mom blog posts? Sign up here to be alerted about new posts on the blog.