I was doing a great job of juggling and making it look easy until I caught a major cold 4 weeks ago.  It started with a tickle in my throat.  I had a sense that it was coming so I increased my intake of vitamin C, but it was too late.

The cold kept me out of commission for about 2 days.  I missed half day at work and a few projects didn't get finished.  When I felt better, I decided to get right back to work.  I was amazed to find how far behind I fell after missing just 2 days.

My margin of error was razor thin.  It’s like living a life with no savings in the bank.  I felt as though I had no cushion of time that I could fall back on if I couldn't operate.  Even worse, what if I wanted a day to just do nothing or spend a few days with friends and family?  How far back would that put me?


What are you going to do with the time?

When we get too busy we often think of what we could be doing instead of what we are currently doing. The problem is when the time does become available; we seem to fill it with something else.  So in the end, you usually end up with the same amount of time but with something different to fill it. 

This is true in all parts of life.  Let’s say that your standard of living is based on a $30,000 salary.  You have a DVD player, a regular cell phone, and a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment and have a low margin of extra money for savings.  If your salary is raised to $35,000, you seemingly have an extra $5,000 per year for savings which would put you in a good financial spot; but only if you live as if you still made $30,000.

What tends to happen instead is that we increase our standard of living right along with our increase of income.  Instead of the DVD player, we switch to Blue Ray.  The cell phone turns into a Blackberry or iPhone and we upgrade to a 2/2.  So ultimately, we have the same margin of extra money.

The same is true with our time.  We can create more time but then turn around and allow it to be filled with seeming important things.  Since time is a currency that is being constantly spent, it is wise to know how you are going to spend it.  I’ve decided to focus on the absolutely important things in my life that I have been missing out on with the extra time I am creating.

When I began to realize how much time I've been spending on things I'm responsible for, I began thinking about the things that I'm missing out on.  Are you missing out on any of these things also? 

Personal Development- You may want to use the time you save to better yourself in a specific way.  I love to learn, apply and share knowledge and experiences.  This site is an avenue for me to do that.  However, when I am running around trying to get things done, I can sometimes fall behind on my own personal development.

Recreation- There was a number of races and leagues that I planned on participating in but never had the time to train for.  I look forward to participating in some local 5 and 10k races.  I’m also considering joining a basketball league.

Volunteering-I enjoy volunteering for Habitat for Humanity which is a program that helps build houses for families who otherwise would not be able to afford a home.  It is a great program and I’m looking forward to volunteering with them again.

Rediscover lost loves-l use to have a sketch book that I would use to sketch in when I felt inspired.  All hobbies that are just for my enjoyment seem to have disappeared this year.

Restore relationships-I was a ghost during my busiest time.  It was hard to get a hold of me unless it was about business or my other projects.  With my new found time I plan on reconnecting with my friends and building new relationships.

Travel-I would like to visit some new places within and outside the US that I haven't been.   I would like to go somewhere I can enjoy the attractions of a big city, but also where I can visit a natural setting. Have any suggestions?

Before you make a plan to create more time, make sure you know how that time will be spent.

Creating Time

Audit your time-You would be surprised at how much time it takes to check email, Facebook, Twitter, and everything else we have that keeps us connected.  Many of the daily activities that we have take up much more time than we think they do.

In 2007, it was reported that Australian businesses lost between 4-6 billion dollars in time because employees were on Facebook. In 2005 over 60% of Americans spent 1-3 hours daily on email.  The majority of people, however, perceive that they are spending a lot less time than they actually are.

To really see where your time is going, audit yourself for a week.  You may come to find out that you have many different things that are taking way too much of your time.  Try to be as exact as possible.  When I first did this I used the stopwatch on my iPod.  Break them down by category or responsibility and you will most likely find at least one big time consumer that you didn’t expect. 

Eliminate and Postponing–Once you’ve figured out which of the things you do daily are taking up the majority of your time, you can begin to eliminate.  Make a list of the things that are the biggest time takers then identify why the item takes as long as it does.  Commit to eliminating one of the things on your list.  The item you choose should be a big time absorber with the least return on your time. 

For example, if you spend 50 minutes combined on Facebook per day that would be about 6 hours per week.  In those 6 hours, how much time was spent on email, posting photos, checking to see what your ex is up to etc?  Once you’ve seen the time you’ve spent, ask how it contributed to the important goals of your day.  If it doesn’t contribute much or anything at all, eliminate it for a week.

Get Good Help-I am the Chairman of a Banquet that is coming up this week.  There 3 different committees that I am responsible for.  As I was taking a break from writing this post, I checked my voicemail and there was a message from the leader of one of the committees.  She informed me that everything is going great and will be ready for the banquet this week.

Delegation only works when the people you are delegating to are capable enough to handle the tasks.  Begin to surround yourself with good decision makers. There are two benefits to having good decision makers around you.  First, you don’t have to micromanage them and second, you will rarely be interrupted to answer a question that they could have easily answered themselves.   

Organize yourself-Organization is one of the best ways to save time.  When you have your day lined up for you and everything is in place, things tend to run more smoothly.  There are many systems that help you organize but I recommend the David Allen method as well as Franklin Covey. Use as many tools and calendars as you need to get yourself organized.  I have a wall calendar, Blackberry organizer, and Google calendar in my current rotation.

Wake up early-I became an early riser many years ago when my job required it and I had an hour commute.  For most of my life if I didn’t have to get up early for something, I wouldn’t.  But ever since I started waking up early, I cannot imagine going back to sleeping in.

Even if a person wakes up 30 minutes earlier, there is a possibility to get more done.  With the thirty minutes, someone can exercise, check email, or get a head start on a time consuming task that they have to do later in the day.  Since it is early, there is little chance that there will be any distractions that make it harder for you to complete your task. I’m usually up at 5am and use the first half of my mornings to pray.  I find that when I pray and meditate early, my mind is clearer and I can attack a task better. 

Limit TV and Surfing-We spend a lot of time on TV and online.  The average household watches about 4.5 hours of TV per day.  The number of videos produces online has jumped 34% to over 12.7 billion videos but the number of people watching the videos has only increased about 6%.  Still many people report that they do not watch much TV and do not spend a lot of time online.

 I limited my TV watching from about 5 hours per day to about 5 hours per week many years ago.  I can say that there are many advantages to turning off the TV.  It is a hard habit to break, but crucial if you want to create more time.

The way to limit TV watching is to plan your viewing.  Look over the weekly TV schedule and choose a program you would like to watch. Choose programs that add up to an hour per day.  If you watched an average of 28 hours per week, it would bring that number down to 7 which would give you an extra 21 hours this week!  The same technique can be used with online surfing.  When scheduling your day, set aside some time to go on online to surf your favorite sites.  When I began limiting my watching, I chose a few select sporting events that I wanted to watch.  Total, I created about 26 extra hours in my week.

Visit back for Part 2 of the Simplifying series

Is it time for you to start simplifying your life? What's your first step?