How to find more time?
This post includes a thorough Time audit and a step-by-step PDF guide on assessing your schedule.
In today’s post, we will examine how to conduct a time audit. I will also answer the zillion-dollar question: How could I find more time in a day?
Most people avoid assessing their schedules simply because they believe it’s time-consuming. I don’t believe that, and neither should you.
It can be done in 10 minutes or less, and I promised you last week that I would show you how.
So, let’s get right to it.
![How to assess your schedule, step-by-step guide created with Scribe How to assess your schedule, step-by-step guide created with Scribe](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Feaf3adf3-8f5a-4927-b5a5-0a6cf3440dad.heic)
Time audit: Assess your schedule
Open up your calendar, whether you use iCal or Google Calendar, like me. Set your calendar to the one-week view. I will focus on the last week.
![a step-by-step guide on how to assess your schedule with Scribe a step-by-step guide on how to assess your schedule with Scribe](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5f72b941-049a-47a6-8770-e19ae9e4de9c.heic)
As you can see, time blocking is a flexible time management technique you can use based on your liking or needs.
You can use time blocking when assessing your schedule to make more time for yourself or to plan your daily tasks.
Let’s discuss time blocking and timeboxing in more detail. These are the two techniques we will rely on heavily.
Time blocking and Timeboxing
In essence, time blocking is a technique for allocating specific blocks of time for different tasks and activities. It involves dividing your day into predetermined intervals and assigning specific tasks or categories to each block.
Time Boxing is a method for setting a fixed time duration, or "box," for a particular task or activity. Instead of assigning tasks to specific time slots, you allocate a predetermined amount of time to complete each task.
What’s great about these two techniques is that they can both be used as a form of to-do list. Thus, you can minimise the number of strategic time management tools you use and fully commit to these two techniques—as I did.
To find more time, you first need to invest time.
What do I mean?
Take a closer look at how you're spending your time right now. If you really want to get a good sense of things, do this for at least a week, maybe even a couple of weeks.
I'm sure many of you can relate to this - I work on different schedules depending on the week. I like to review how I spent the past two weeks to track my time and ensure I use it wisely.
→ I know you're busy, but I promise it won't take up much of your time. You only need to invest a maximum of ten minutes per day.
And there you have it! In just a few minutes, I've assessed my schedule.
Of course, this process gets more straightforward or complicated depending on the sheer volume of your daily tasks, commitments, responsibilities, etc.
Reviewing your schedule should become part of your weekly routine. Only this way can you carve out time for the most important tasks you genuinely care about.
That's not me preaching to the choir. It's based on an article1 I read long ago that stuck with me. I will include the link in the footnote if you want to read it.
As you can see from my example, completing a time audit helps me track how I use my time, make adjustments and identify available time to spend on extra tasks.
Now, let’s recap how to find more time for the tasks that most matter to you.
How to find more time in three easy steps.
1. Begin by mapping out how you currently spend your time.
2. Identify any available gaps within your schedule.
3. If there are no gaps, assess each activity and determine what tasks or activities could be adjusted, minimised, or completely dropped to create more free time.
Consider each task and activity based on the following criteria, and identify the tasks that:
Consume the most amount of time.
Can be rescheduled, postponed, or eliminated.
Consume your time but deliver significant payoffs in terms of joy, relaxation, or tangible results.
Assess, cease and allocate
In a nutshell, the fundamental principle of this week is to Assess - Cease - Allocate.
You assess how you spend your time,
cease nonessentials (the tasks that don’t align with your current goals), and
allocate time to the essential tasks.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared with you a Time management quiz2 that helps you determine where you squander your time, where you do okay, and where you might need to improve.
Last week, I included a mini-reflection form3 with a number of questions you can consider and ponder when assessing your schedule.
This week, I shared with you a practical example of how I would conduct my time audit4.
If you use these three tools/tips or at least one of these, you’re on the way to finding time for what truly matters to you.
I tried to make assessing my schedule a weekly practice, as priorities and focus often change. You might find the same approach useful, too.
Most importantly, make it a fun weekly task, not a chore. And if it starts feeling like a chore, stop and complete it on a monthly basis. Remember, the aim is to test what works, not add more to your to-do list.
As always, thank you for reading, and I look forward to next week when we will review some hidden time traps.
See you next week,
Jana
I created a step-by-step guide for assessing your schedule with Scribe. You can download the PDF here.