We all have 1440 minutes every day. Yet some people seem to achieve so much and others barely make a dent on their good intentions. And yet others seem to be incredibly busy achieving absolutely nothing, least of all a sense of achievement or fulfilment. There are many reasons this could be true and one way to think about it is to consider how you use your time according to how much you do of each of the following:
Spend Time
Spending time is doing things which are either nurturing to the soul or maintaining. They are necessary for balance and to keep you on track.
Examples include spending quality time with friends laughing and talking (face to face, not online), working in a planned, results-oriented way, spending structured time dealing with admin tasks including social media and inbox engagement, taking your car for a service, cleaning the house, having a massage, tackling a difficult situation, doing a fulfilling hobby, practicing mindfulness (especially good is time in nature).
Invest Time
This time is spent on those things which move you further towards your goals and life purpose. Your life purpose will be personal to you and, if you haven’t defined one for yourself, it is highly likely that you aren’t spending enough time doing things which will make a significant difference to you.
Examples of investments include working on your marketing or business strategy, working towards a health goal, personal development, taking your loved one(s) out for some quality time together.
Fritter Time
This is where you are mindlessly in time, reacting to demands without thought as to how they fit into your goals; often reacting to others (usually the one who shouts loudest). It can also include displacement activities to stop you facing any of life’s challenges in a constructive way, such as spending too much time on social media, smoking, drinking, comfort eating, or other ‘too-muching’. Of course, sometimes it’s good not to have to think about what you are doing or what you should be doing. However, if you are spending a lot of time in this area your life is not moving forward and you may end up years from now with a sense of regret and wondering where all the time went.
Examples include: most social media engagement, watching reality TV, most internet surfing, reacting immediately to the myriad of bleeps and pings from your technological weapon of choice, or worse still, all your technology tools simultaneously.
Master or Servant?
Nobody wants a life engineered to the nth degree but nor does anyone want to get to the end of their life with regrets. The best way out of it is to be time’s master, not its servant. And the best way to do that is to make conscious choices about whether you are spending, investing or frittering. Life balance is found in a comfortable and appropriate application of all three. What would a suitable ratio be for you and your life? How much do you want to invest? How much are you comfortable to fritter? And what does that leave you to spend?
If you would like to become master of your time, why not come along to How to Achieve More in Less Time where you will learn a variety of techniques to help from my 100% rule to techniques on how to achieve a zero inbox.
Price includes materials, refreshments, lunch and additional 1:1 coaching to help embed the learning in a way which is right for you. Join me!