Playing With Time

Hello, and welcome to episode number nine of The Strategy Corner, where our goal is to get you to take action. I’m your host, Michelle Zink, the owner of Intentional Solutions Corp.

Today’s strategy is playing with time. This concept of time came up a few weeks back when I started to focus on my productivity. I realized that if I really wanted to produce at a higher level, I needed to focus on the time I spent on actually producing things. By having this realization, it made me feel like I was in control of my time. I was the one driving what I wanted to focus my time on and I had the opportunity to create more time by spending less time on other things.

I started simply by asking myself, every time I scheduled something, how much time do I want to spend on this, and then I set that specific time. For instance, I played with my time getting ready in the morning. Instead of giving myself one hour, I gave myself 40 minutes. And guess what? I got ready in 40 minutes. I also decreased the time it takes me to plan and schedule my week. Instead of 90 minutes, I brought that down to 60 minutes. I now have an extra 30 minutes to use with how I see fit, to use to get results that I’m looking for.

What does this mean? It means and shows that we can accomplish anything we put our mind to, and when you look at time spent, there’s an opportunity to tighten things up and become not only productive, but efficient. Some of you are thinking this is crazy, but if you combine the ideas of productivity along with setting specific times for things and doing them in that timeframe, you will blow your mind on how much you can get done. Believe me, I didn’t think I could get things done quicker than I already was, but when I put my mind to it and allowed myself before every task to ask how long do I want to spend time doing this and followed that up with setting my timer and not allowing interruptions, I was able to actually do what I said I wanted to do in that shorter period of time.

Now, when we talk about time, we can be talking about saving 15 minutes, a half an hour. Every little bit of time savings adds up to more time you get to have and schedule on things you want to do. That could be producing something additional that you thought you might not get to that week, or scheduling time for fun. The options are endless. I’ve also noticed how playing with time has made me feel more abundant. Before playing with time and productivity I felt restricted and a victim to my calendar and time. With these small shifts of perspective, I have been able to open myself up to possibilities and more time.

What I’ve learned and how it’s helped me. Well, I have learned that to begin, you just have to start guessing and deciding ahead of time how long a task or event will take. Sometimes you get it done sooner or you may need more time in the future. The key is to set the time and stop when you said you would. Now for me, this is the difficult one, because especially with when I schedule my week out, instead of 90 minutes, I went down to 60 minutes. For a couple of weeks I was able to do it in 60 minutes, but then other weeks I’ve noticed that sometimes I do need 90 minutes and takes me a little bit longer. So being flexible with yourself, but also realizing that in 60 minutes I need to stop and then I need to go ahead and schedule another 30 minutes some other time. By doing this, it keeps you very focused on your time and it actually creates this momentum for you to get it done in the 60 minutes next time.

It also keeps you on track and also helps you accomplish things quicker. I’ve also seen how when I accomplish things ahead of time, the joy and excitement I get by getting that time back. You have to try this to see how you feel, but I promise it will feel great. I need to be flexible. Sometimes I need more time to do things that day, so I just stop at the time and move my schedule around to accommodate the additional time and get it done then. It truly helps you to produce more and have a more abundant and ownership mindset. This is the key, right? The more abundant and ownership mindset, the more that we know or feel we’re in control, the more we actually get done.

Okay, now it’s your turn. Look at your calendar for today and what you have scheduled. Are there any items you can decrease the time on to play with getting it done quicker? The next time you need to plan and schedule something, ask yourself, how long do I want to spend on this item? Yes, do I. You’re in the driver’s seat. How long do I want to spend on this item? Then schedule that item for that time you want to spend. On that day and time you have that scheduled, go ahead and set your phone timer for the allotted time. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb. Tell your employees, your husband, your daughter, whomever’ s around, that you will need to be out of pocket for X amount of time to get whatever you need to get done. Also, go ahead and make sure you get out of your email, because you don’t want that popping up while you’re doing the thing that you’re supposed to be doing.

Then work to get it done in the allotted time. Stop when the alarm goes off. If complete, awesome, but if you still need time, schedule it and make note that this task or thing you’re producing takes time. Learn from it so you can plan more effectively later. What I mean by that is if you do something and it’s something you’re going to do continuously and you realize you scheduled 30 minutes, but it really does take an hour, just make note of that so when you do your weekly planning you can schedule an hour instead of 30 minutes. Okay?

Again, this goal is to have fun. This is something that we’re playing with each week. Each week we’re just trying one little new strategy to see if it works for us, because in reality, what works for me isn’t going to work for you, right? But I like to share all these strategies so you can start realizing and figuring out what works for you, so that you can start getting those results you’re looking for.

If you could please, go to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and subscribe to The Strategy Corner. Also, you can go to my website, intentionalsolutionscorp.com, and sign up to get my weekly blog posts, which also has it link to the latest podcast. Until next time remember, through action and growth, progression happens. Let’s take action together. Thank you guys so much and create an amazing day.