Time

To help you get clear on things you need to do, you need to make priorities. Now is the time to make a list of all the one-off jobs you have been meaning to do, but haven’t found the time for yet, such as painting the front door, calling a relative, fixing your bike. Include everything, no matter how small. Then prioritise them by giving them numbers. Give the most urgent task number 1, then the next most urgent, number 2 and so on.

Now go back through your list and allocate a period of time each week to clearing these tasks. Tick them off as you do them and add any news ones to the list as they arise.

When you have planned your timetable, see what time you have left. If your timetable is packed, then you should look carefully at what is using up all your time. If it is work, then do another timetable for work and prioritise all your tasks within it. If you still can’t fit them all in, then you will have identified a problem; you are overworked!

If this is the case, you should take steps to ease the situation, get help and delegate any tasks you don’t need to do yourself.

If you are spending too much time doing housework or looking after other people when they are capable of doing things themselves, ask for help here too.

Sometimes all that is needed is a simple request to spur people into action. If your requests are ignored, however, you may have to be firm!

Changing a few of your everyday habits can often save a lot of time. Try some of these simple techniques and see how much time you can save:

Open your mail over the paper recycle basket and bin unnecessary items immediately
Answers letters the day they come in
File things away as you deal with them
Control the amount of time you spend on the telephone and online. If someone you know is a chatterbox, try calling at times when you know you can keep the call short, such as just before that person’s favourite TV programme.
Limit your time watching TV; choose the programmes you particularly want to watch and then switch off the TV when you have finished watching.
Be vigilant about people offloading jobs onto you, for example, if someone says to you ‘can you ring so and so’, explain that you haven’t got time and suggest that he or she makes the phone call instead.

These are just some of the ways by which you can make more time in your life. There are many, many more – please add a comment if you have more suggestions. Try some of the ideas straight away, so that you can start enjoying the benefits.