Just yesterday I was talking to a member at our Macclesfield RISE (Arena of Real Change).
She was explaining to me how she was struggling to ‘find’ the time to do the things she needed to do to get the results (reduced body fat, increased energy levels and better sleep) that she desired.
The lack of time thought process is a common one we come across and one that is very easy to slip into.
I even find myself doing it on a regular basis.
It’s a thought process that we often work on changing with the people we work with to enable them to achieve lasting success.
The key ‘paradigm shift’ (read this article, if you haven’t already – myrise.co.uk/members/paradigm-shifts-how-to-shift-your-thinking-to-actually-lose-weight) that we often encourage people to make at this point is to move from the concept of ‘finding time’ to ‘making time’.
If you wait to ‘find’ time, it will never present itself.
It’s about making enough time out of all those spare minutes you have in the week or by changing the use of some of your ‘flexible time’.
To help you get in the mindset for making time out of all those spare minutes, check out this motivational video I made a few years ago – www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAIBDysrG-w. It’s not viewable on mobile devices as I made it a while ago, but it’s worth bookmarking for later if you’re not on a compute.
A really useful way to get an idea of where you can make time is to compete a 15 minute log for a week (downloadable here – myrise.co.uk/members/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/15-minute-log-blank.xlsx).
It’s really simple, just fill in as you go along what you’re doing every 15 minutes for a week.
You can do it on the excel sheet itself or print it off and keep it with you.
It sounds a pain, but it is truely eye opening and makes your realise how much time your spend doing non essential tasks (facebook, TV, etc) and how much time you seem to spend on important tasks that should really take less time.
“Did I really spend 4 hours today doing email?”
It often makes you question what you actually did in a time frame too.
Sometimes you’ll forget to fill it in and return to it at the end of an 8 hour shift and struggle to fill it.
“What did I actually do today?”
I do this every couple of months and it always highlights bad, time-wasting, habits I have slipped back into.
It’s mildly depressing looking back, but hugely liberating going forward.
Again, it will take a little time, but please give it a go. I promise it’ll be worth it.
Go on, download it from myrise.co.uk/members/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/15-minute-log-blank.xlsx and give it a go.
I’ll follow up next week (when you should have 7 days worth) with things you can do to free up a lot of this time and make better use of it.
Jon ‘Making Time’ Hall
P.S. You might also find this free time calculator useful – myrise.co.uk/members/free-time
P.P.S. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, get the ’15 minute log’ at myrise.co.uk/members/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/15-minute-log-blank.xlsx