Time is our most valuable asset. We can’t buy or borrow more. Time is a finite resource.
Time is also a great equaliser because we all have exactly 24 hours per day. So, if, from a time perspective, life is a level playing field, how can it be that some people seem to get so much done?
Here are three time-proven tips to help you create a time-rich life. Because how you spend your time, is your life.
1. Decide to make right decisions
Many of us struggle to make decisions because we’re scared of making the wrong one. So, we go back and forth, or don’t decide at all. Or even when we do decide, we worry whether it was the right one.
If this is you, it’s ok. But just know how much time and mental energy it uses. Time and energy not put into moving forward your business, career, and personal ambitions.
The simple way to stop this is to make the right decision. And here’s how:
1. Make a decision
2. Decide that the decision you made is the right one
That’s it.
Because there’s no such thing as a right decision. There’s no magical scale for assessing whether a decision is the right one.
Instead, you get to decide that it is, by trusting yourself and owning your decision.
And when the outcome isn’t quite what you anticipated, that’s ok too. That’s business and that’s life. It’s pretty much guaranteed that things won’t unfold how you’d planned, with any decision you make.
And so, when that happens, simply make another decision, decide it’s the right one, and keep moving forward.
2. Focus on the one next thing
Whether it’s projects at work or personal objectives, our brain likes to trick us into feeling overwhelmed. Because overwhelm is really our brain trying to keep us ‘safe’ by convincing us not to do that thing.
So, this keeps us stuck from even starting, or from thinking logically – and planning how to make it happen. And putting things off often leads to even more rush and stress for everybody involved, which nobody wants and didn’t need to happen.
Instead, when it seems you have lots on, just keep asking yourself: what’s the one next thing I can do to move forward?
Maybe it’s creating a plan. Maybe it’s dropping someone a message. Maybe it’s assembling a team.
Focusing on the one next thing not only makes progress but helps us realise that not only are larger objectives totally achievable, but they’re really just a series of smaller goals added up.
3. Practice a time-rich mindset
I’ll let you in on a little secret: Time is a mental construct.
It’s not possible for there to not be ‘enough time’. It’s not possible for time to be ‘running out’.
But it is possible for us to think those things.
This is all great news.
Because if it’s possible for us to choose to think those things, it’s possible for us to think the opposite. And to take an alternative approach to how we think about time and create a completely different life experience.
Now, this might sound a little ‘out there’. But it’s true and it works 100% of the time.
Here’s an example:
First, think about how quickly time seems to pass when you’re rushing for that train, or to make that application deadline at work. And then how slowly time seems to pass when you’re finally onboard waiting for the train to leave or waiting on the results of that application.
Ten minutes can seem like age or sometimes pass in an instant. And it’s all down to how you think about time.
Because when you think ‘there’s not enough time’ – what usually happens?
Perhaps you feel stressed and anxious, you don’t think straight. You rush, you make mistakes, you jump from one thing to the next. The result? You’re way less likely to make that train or submit a high-quality application.
What if instead, you chose to think ‘I have enough time for this.’ So, instead you feel calm, present, measured, and thoughtful. You make rational, helpful decisions and plan. You get to that platform and submit a great application.
Two very differing results just from how you think about time.
Because your mindset always decides everything you do, or don’t do.
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At Everyday Impact Time & Mindset Coaching, Hazel and Luke help purpose driven leaders and founders with the practical tools and strategies to plan their time and lives – and use a simple and mindset model to help their clients understand their mindset and to create better results.
