“It’s not about having time, it’s about making time.”
Unknown
On top of a whole lot of other day-to-day stuff, you may be wondering how to create time to work on new goals. We only have so many hours in a day (24), so we have to be cognizant about using those hours in our favor to work on the goals that are important to us along with all the other things we need to do in a day, including sleep.
Make Time for Your Goals
Reaching our goals doesn’t just happen on its own, we have to make it happen. It’s common to have good intentions to reach our goals, but our time can easily be gobbled up with day-to-day appointments, clients, chores, work tasks and family. These are all important, but they don’t necessarily help us reach our goals. We have to be intentional about making or creating time to work on our goals. The first step is to know what your goals are and to be clear and concise about them. Remember, in SMART Goals the “S” is for specific. Being specific will help you zero in on what you need to do and what steps you need to take to reach the finish line. From there, the next step is to create time to work on them.
Carve Out Time in Your Schedule
A great first step is to be honest with yourself about how you are using your time and look for ways you may be wasting time. Eliminating time wasters can open up space and time in your schedule to work on your goals. Time wasters may look like:
- Spending too much time on social media
- Watching TV, Netflix or Hulu shows one after the other
- Meetings that could be better handled by sending an email or by a quick call to a specific person
- Socializing by texting, chatting on the phone or video chats
- Doing housework or running errands while working from home
You may need to embrace the word, “No” as a strategy to open up time. Ask yourself if each task you’re doing is helping you reach your goals or hurting you from reaching your goals. This may be the time for you to:
- Skip a meeting that isn’t relevant right now
- Not take on new commitments or volunteer positions
- Skip activities you really aren’t interested in
- Let go of activities that are no longer interesting to you or serving you well
- Ask yourself, “Do I feel obligated or do I want to do this?”
Creating your “to do” list at the end of the day for the next day is a strategy that will help you hit the ground running the next morning. You’ll know what you need to do when you sit down to work with clarity and focus.
Break goals into small pieces so you can just work for a short amount of time each day or several times per week. Turn off interruptions while you’re working on your goals. Put your phone in airplane mode, don’t check email and don’t get onto any social media sites.
Look for Time Pockets
Create a list of things you can do when you have unexpected pockets of time such as waiting for an appointment or during those few minutes right before a meeting is starting.
Wrap Up
If you want to see your goals reached, you have to create time to make it happen. Make it easy to reach goals by breaking them into small pieces and look for time wasters you can eliminate to open up space and time.
“People often complain about lack of time when the lack of direction is the real problem”
Zig Ziglar
