Step 2: See What You Can Give Up
This is the hard — but liberating — part: Rethinking the way you spend your time. As you sit in front of your crammed-full daily diary, consider this: Devoting more time to what you love can help you get more done overall. “It sounds like a paradox,” says Neil Fiore, Ph.D., a psychologist and an executive coach in Berkeley, California, and the author of
The Now Habit (Penguin Group, $15,
www.amazon.com), “but research shows that to be productive and creative, you must make time for recreation and relaxation. Trying to skimp on them hurts your motivation and often leads you to procrastinate.” Plus, being a little selfish will keep you from becoming resentful, burned out, or cranky. And that’s a good thing for everyone.
Since you can’t manufacture time, you need to find ways to free it up. Take another look at your list of current activities and ask yourself four questions:
What can I delegate? OK, so maybe your 11-year-old can’t load the dishwasher as well as you can. Hand over that task and you’ve got 10 minutes to spend on something more fulfilling. The fact that you’re teaching your child responsibility — with, yes, an occasional eye roll or chipped dish — is a bonus. If you’ve reflexively been handling most of the household duties — dry-cleaning drop-offs, filling out school forms — turn some of them over to your spouse. (No, this does not make you a bad wife, a bad mother, or a nag.) Try similar strategies at work: Give junior staffers assignments that stretch their capabilities, rather than swooping in and doing the job yourself.
What can I outsource? Housecleaning and lawn care are obvious answers, but also think about things like tutoring for your kids — especially when it comes to subjects that take hours to get up to speed on (
amo, amas, amat…). Before you decide you can’t afford this, scrutinize your spending. Chances are, there’s a way to reallocate your resources. Could you forgo dinner out one night a week in exchange for freedom from all that washing and folding? If you need more convincing, calculate what your time is worth, says Timothy Ferriss, a time-management expert and the author of
The 4-Hour Workweek (Crown, $20,
www.amazon.com). To get your “hourly rate,” cut the last three zeros off your annual salary, then halve that number. So if you make $60,000 a year, your hourly rate is $30. “If it takes you three hours to clean the house each week, that’s $90 worth of your time,” he says.
What can I do less well (at least sometimes)? Here’s an easy efficiency boost: When something you’re working on is good enough, stop. “It’s a waste of time to do everything perfectly, such as polishing the underside of the banister,” says professor Randy Pausch. “Instead, focus on doing the important things adequately” — like showing up at a friend’s birthday party even if you haven’t found that just-right present. Or making a simple pasta dish for a special dinner instead of going full-out gourmet. Not only will you gain more time but you’ll also have energy to actually
enjoy these events rather than just feeling frazzled.
