I often get asked how I get so much done when I only have my little guy in school 3 hours a day (it’s really only 2 hours and 45 minutes of focused work when you account for driving to and from his school).
Great question.
My businesses (LearnSavvy as well as my former acupuncture practice in San Francisco) have been seemingly “part-time” for 5 years now and when you have only so many hours each day, you become very strategic about how you use that time.
I’ve never had full-time care for him and this last year has been particularly limited based on a new preschool he’s attended which is only 3 hours a day.
I’m fanatical about learning news ways to figure out how to squeeze even MORE out of the few hours I have. The stack of books on productivity and time management is pretty ridiculous at this point.
I love Parkinson’s Law and it explains so much. You may not have heard of it but the concept will probably ring true for you: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
If you have 1 hour to complete something (say you have a hard deadline), you will hustle to get it done, completed, proofed and out the door within that hour. If you were given all day to complete the same task, it would undoubtedly take you much longer to complete. Time constraints can really work FOR you.
Even if you don’t have kids or the crazy time constraints I currently have (hello Kindergarten in the Fall – Hallelujah!), you can still find some gems that could help you get more out of your day!
So here’s how I get things done (and the mindset behind it)
Mindfulness Rules
It took me nearly 4 years to really learn how to focus in the moment. I would spend time with my son and be thinking about how to get more out of social media, or the people I needed to call or I’d check my email to see if something interesting came through, or a respond to a tweet or I’d text a biz friend. So distracted! On the flip side I would be thinking about my son while I was suppose to be working on my business. I was so scattered. I wasn’t really completely engaged in either when I needed to be.
After years of practice I’ve been much better about being totally (or at least 90% which I think is pretty good) present when I’m with my little guy and totally focused when I’m working on my business. Mindfulness is really a practice – an ongoing practice!
Make (very early) Mornings Meaningful
Several years back I decided if I was really going to get things done I needed to suck it up and become a morning person. I’m still not totally a morning person but I know the value in it, that’s for sure!
If the rest of your world doesn’t rise until 8am then you could easily get 3-4 hours of work done before breakfast. That is more time than I get during the day so I’ll take it! I also utilize that time to meditate as well.
Be Strategic
I’m a paper and pen kind of gal and I love love love lists. So each week I plot out the week and then each day I write down the 3 must do items.. the three things I need to accomplish that will move our business forward. When you sit down to work, you shouldn’t be fumbling around to figure out what to do. You should have a very clear set of items that you want to accomplish and outcomes that you want realized by the end of the day and week. (Best to do your planning either the Friday before or Sunday – don’t go into Monday without a plan – I find it starts your week off feeling behind.)
The Hours In-Between
There are pockets of time throughout the week that you can easily pop into your office and take care of a few lingering items. It might be a Saturday morning when your family is off running errands or while dinner is simmering and everyone is otherwise preoccupied. I steal those small moments when I’m particularly busy to answer a few emails or finish something small I can do in 15 or 30 minutes.
The Office is Now Closed
I used to regularly work before dinner, after dinner, and after my son went to bed (this is when I didn’t get up before the sun rises). I realized that I was really cutting into my family time – which is a priority to me. I also wasn’t exactly working at my best at these hours either. If we’re launching something new or have something pressing I will of course get to it, but I’ve made it a point to close the office in the evenings (and that goes for social media on my devices too!).
Practice Patience
First off – everything takes longer! It still drive me nuts but after years of missing my own self-imposed deadlines, I’m learning to relax – not entirely there yet. I know that people who don’t have kids might have certain advantages but I no longer complain that I have it so rough.
Know It’s a Choice
I’m not all “boo-hoo poor me”. You can waste precious time, energy and mental bandwidth feeling sorry for your situation. This is something that has happened to me. I am very clear. This is the decision I’ve made. Would I love more hours to work each day – oh my gosh, YES! – but I also know that would cut dramatically into our “start-up fund” and let’s be honest – my sweet little guy will only be 5 years old once.
Trust me I have had a pity party here and there throughout the years but generally I know that this is a decision I’ve made … and the right one for me. If you choose the slow and steady route, really hunker down with that decision, know it’s the right one at this time for you and be creative about how to fulfill all your dreams.
Focus Focus Focus
When you have only a few hours you get a ton done because you just won’t allow distractions to stand in your way. Scrolling through your Facebook feed, looking at Instagram, watching free webinars, reading random e-Books … you just don’t have time for it. Every minute counts.
Of course I make time for things that are highly recommended, books I’m dying to read, my mastermind group and networking dates … but anything superfluous – forget it! There is no time for frivolousness. These time restraints really do make you super focused on how you roll in business. Right now, we are clear we can’t be on every single platform and playing with every new strategy that we learn about. One day but not now.
Plus Other Ways I Get Stuff Done.
- Listen to audio books and podcasts when I’m driving.
- Watch videos of people I follow /TED Talks or listen to audio books/podcasts when I’m at gym.
- Schedule “daddy” time for my son on the weekends so that they can have bonding time together and I can get some work done.
- Mastermind calls every week at 6am.
- Meet with Mastermind annually to do big annual planning (and have a boat load of fun!).
- Once a quarter I meet some local biz gal friends at a spa for a service then we gab about business over lunch.
- Sneak off to bed 30 minutes before everyone else to read.
Take Action:
1:
Schedule time either 30 minutes on Friday afternoon or on Sunday evening to plan out your entire week.
2:
Look at your most important task and block time on your calendar as if it were an appointment… with a start and stop time. Commit to finishing the task within the time allotted.
3:
Look at your current scheduling tools and make sure they’re really the best ones for you. Are you using google calendar, Basecamp, good ol’ pen and paper, a fancy planning system, a combo? Are you writing things down in several places and having a hard time keeping things organized. Take 15 minutes to really determine if your systems is working for you.
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