How To Maximise Time To Help More Leaders — Day 9 of Leadership Blogging

Time really is precious. It’s one of the valuable commodities in our lives, next to our physical and mental health and the air we breathe. I call it a commodity because although we can not get any more of it, we can trade it.

We are constantly bombarded with messages attempting to steal our time and that’s not cool. But unless we are consciously aware of this, we end up succumbing to the barrage of direct and indirect influences. You are reading one of those influences right now.

So how can we take back control over our time?

Vanessa and I have often challenged ourselves and each other to redress the balance of how we can get back more time in our lives. And also, how can we use our time more productively.

Things that work for me.

I am not a big fan of reading a book from cover to cover, I never quite learnt the art of speed reading, but it’s on my list of skills to crack this year. So I tend to listen to audio books instead which is great because not only do I get through one to two books a month, I get to listen to my book whilst I am travelling too.

I purposely put my daily personal belongings in the same place each day. Sounds odd but it saves me time in the mornings whilst I get ready and it’s one less thing to think about. It also is a sure bet for not misplacing my wallet in the house

Speaking of which, I have a uniform set of clothes which I can mix and match throughout the week, to wear to work. This helps me save time in the clothes I wash, iron and wear for the week. Less choice means I can focus my mind on other things more important to me.

Things that work for Vanessa.

Vanessa is hot on making lists. Not just for the sake of it but to clearly prioritise goals and tasks that need to be done. This is great as when it is done well in advance it mitigates deliberation, procrastination and indecisiveness. I’m working on coming up to her level cause she ain’t coming down.

Having the right technology is crucial for anyone running their own business. Vanessa never cuts corners in this area, having the right tools means she can be more efficient on the go whilst working with clients, travelling and creating content. Hot Tip: she uses a Google Pixel phone which is very cool.

Mindset is everything in this business game and Vanessa is great at applying filters to her mind to allow her to focus on the things that matter. By purposely setting your mind to focus on what matters, all the noise moves out of the way and clears the path. This not only makes time more productive but in a strange way stretches time to allow her to meet her goals. We all know that too much unnecessary noise is not good for the mind.

Things that work for our kids.

Yep, that’s right even the kids do things to save time, and not necessarily on purpose.

Our older son gets up in the morning and jumps in the shower first. He says it saves time.

Our younger son gets up at 6 am every day (including weekends) and has his breakfast first. He creates more time instead of sleeping.

Our younger daughter packs her bag the night before she goes to bed so she doesn’t have to do it in the morning. This means she can get more sleep (5–10 max).

Our older daughter prepares her hair the night before school. This saves her time in the morning.

With so many options to save time by planning ahead, to using time in a more productive way, we hope this encourages you to look at your time bank and ponder the question — what can I do to use my time better?

Just don’t spend too much time on the question.