It’s Friday evening and you’re looking forward to unwinding after a full week. But between e-mails, and chores and the thousand and one small problems that seem to crop up, your weekend flies away leaving you feeling like you haven’t really accomplished any of the things you really wanted to do.
Our minds, which can be our greatest assets can also turn out to be our worst enemy. People suffer from what is called ‘planning fallacy’, namely they tend to be optimistic and underestimate the time they need to complete their tasks.
When making estimates, the rule of thumb seems to be: take the amount of time you expect to spend on a task and multiply it by at least a factor 3.
Here are a few simple tips on how to reclaim your free time.
1. Track it
Before you can reclaim your time, you first need to know where you spend it. What are the main time consuming activities? When are you most productive and what are you doing then?
There is a treasure trove of free time tracking software on the internet, you only have to take advantage of it. Or you can always do it the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.
If random internet browsing is taking a big chunk of your time, you can find a lot of software that blocks respective sites for set time periods.
2. Goals and priorities
Once you have an idea where your time is being spent, you can focus on setting goals for yourself .
Setting goals gives you purpose and focus. It also helps organize all the nebulous activities floating around on your mental to-do lists.
Since a lot of time usually ends up being spent on trivial tasks, you need to prioritize your goals.
You can organize your ‘to-do’ list based on importance and time constraints.
3. Pin them down
It’s not enough just to consider what activities you need to do, you also have to write them down and give yourself a deadline to complete them.
Creative activities for instance, tend to stretch or be postponed indefinitely, if not given a time constraint.
Writing the tasks down helps to give you a visual reminder and motivation to complete a task.
4. It’s ok to say NO
Regardless of how well you plan, unexpected things are bound to happen. While you like helping friends and family that come to you with various issues it’s also important to learn to say NO.
People will understand – and you won’t need to overbook your time.
5. Sharing is caring
Sharing is caring – especially when it comes to tasks. Most people feel the need to accomplish everything by themselves, but a pair of helping hands can speed things up considerably.
Setting up a simple chore rotation schedule instantly frees up a chunk of your time.
6. Effective multitasking
One of the greatest ways to get more free time is to multi-task. The way to do that effectively is to combine activities that do not require too much attention or to pair up chores that require different skill sets.
A simple example can be listening to audio books while cooking, or pairing exercising and watching television.
7. Easy start
People can feel overwhelmed by complex tasks or activities they dread. In this case, giving yourself a ‘slow access ramp’ helps you get over the initial hurdle of starting such a project.
Starting with the simplest or most pleasant part of the activity helps you get going and eases you into the project.
8. Reward yourself
Rewarding yourself is the best way to be more productive at home and free up your time. Scheduling a small reward after a chore, like a bit of reading after doing taxes, motivates you to complete activities on time and to stop procrastinating.
Eventually, through the repeated association of chore and reward you will no longer consider those activities unpleasant and waste time by trying to avoid them.