If you don’t have time, you make time. Yes,  it is that easy.

We mistakenly think that time is something you have to get. Like there is a place where you go buy it.

But think of how often we say that if we had the time we would do this and that and look at you now, during pandemic and as we’re getting out of it. Think about, it, when does this ever happen? That life goes on hold and you have time handed to you without making an effort to make it? Never!

Did you actually use the time to do the things you wanted to? Because you certainly had the time now! If you did, fantastic! You’re in the time making club. If you did not, there was no excuse. Yes, I’m sure you made many, but none of them excusable.

Maybe last year,  instead of embracing the time that was, unfortunately, handed to you on a platter,  you were part of the preoccupied club that was, to the point of paralysis, tracking the current events live. Maybe you just could not pull yourself together.

Don’t despair. The good thing about time, is that it is always there for you to make when you’re ready for it. To help you on your first steps, here are my top five things you should start with.

But first, a critical and fun fact: My learnings of how to make time spun out of having to cope with co-workers and running an office. Oh yes! – and being a fully present mother in the same time!

If you’re like me and do not know how to make time, you will soon find yourself managing everyone else’s time but your own and at the end of it, you will be left with no day to do your work nor live your life. I went and hired many people over the years thinking that they will be with me forever. Guess what. They were not. For various reasons. Like any relationships, really, the work ones stop when interests between people do not align. Or when things just don’t work out from early on. But the few that worked and the people that I’ve come to rely on and enjoy working with  did not happen without effort, patience, and adjustments on both sides. One of the most useful skills I’ve learned is how to spun out time for all of us in the office to work better, more efficiently, more enjoyable. This has without doubt, produced better design. And all of it can be applied to personal life and induce a better, healthier and longer lifestyle. Here is how:

Realign your mind to reality

Nobody will give you time, you have to figure out on your own what’s your best way of making it. I’ll give you some tips that worked for me and, with all my heart, I hope that they will work for you. But you’re the only one that can determine if that’s true or not.

So stop reading too many blogs like this one. Read a few to get the idea, pick your method, then get on with it and do it. And if it does not work, go read some more, get new ideas and try another method. But don’t give up!

Then when you have made enough time to fit chunks of reading time in your day, then you can come back and read more.

Delegate in your personal life

Pure manipulation is what will help you with this one. In the most positive and friendly way!

This can also be a fun one since you can focus on delegating some of the things you yourself do not like doing.

Think of the tasks you do throughout the day as time-eating monsters. One of the biggest, is chores. We’re all prisoners of liking a clean house but not all of us like cleaning it. So, delegate. Yes, it is possible to delegate to family members and get them to jump in and help even though you’ve tried, and nothing worked. You must do it more like a psychologist. Once a delegating method does not work, you must change it. Not complain that nobody does anything but you. Learn instead how to push the buttons of your household members to get them not only to do it, but not resent you for asking them to.

Learn to embrace imperfection

As soon as somebody else does what you normally do, they will do it worse than you. That is in about 95% of cases. So, you have two choices: start doing it again, and lose all the time that you gained, or appreciate the help even if not to your standards and focus on what to do with the time that you’ve just gained. Think of it as a wise balance, not as a slaughterhouse where everything that does not cut it to your standard is butchered and killed.

Don’t let any week pass without a memorable moment

This for me, surprisingly, was the hardest to figure out. When days move fast, they tend to glob into a rolling ball that moves into one direction flattening everything behind it into forgetfulness. When trying to recall it, you must peel it off and give its shape back to recognize what it was.

At one point I started a journal in the form of personal tweet. I would keep it down to one sentence that would go through my head per day. Sometimes I would write in the morning, sometimes at night, or anytime in between. The point is, I would not let a day slip by without adding an entry. Content varied from feelings to facts of the day, to notes to myself about this or that, but the important part was that it was my bit of conversation with myself. At the end of the week, I would read what I wrote, take a moment to remember what I did and that was enough.

I dropped the journal at one point, but I still tally up my week, for a few quick minutes, usually on Fridays, and take pleasure in not one, but at least five or seven things that I’ve accomplished. It’s an incredible jolt of joy that welcomes me to the weekend.

Say no to what you do not want to do

Oh boy, this will save you so much time as you can’t even imagine. Don’t be shy with yourself, be honest and straightforward because to refuse and say no to what you don’t want to do, is first knowing what that is.

Like everything else in life, how good are you at making time depends only on you.

How much can you fit in the day. What is it that you want to fit in the day? Get to actually refuse things you don’t want to do and start by thinking what it is really that you want to do…the land of magic is your life.

Said the rabbit.. I’m Late! I’m Late! and down she went the rabbit hole..