“There’s just not enough time in the day!”
“I have too much to do, I’ll never get caught up!”
Do these statements feel familiar to you?
I hear them often, and I’ve even said them myself a time or two … or more.
And because there’s just never quite enough time, you probably feel the pressure to squeeze in as much as possible.
You know the feeling … before your day even begins, you have more to do than you know you can reasonably get done.
So you start the mad race of rushing through traffic, tasks, meetings, and pretty much everything else in your day.
Yet somewhere deep down you KNOW you can’t possibly do it all. But you cram as much as you can into your day anyway because maybe – just maybe – today will be different.
“If only I had more time!”
Sigh.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that time is the enemy.
And it’s all too easy to lose sight of what you’re really rushing to … or why you’re even doing it in the first place!
Maybe all that rushing through your day isn’t the answer.
Sometimes slowing down is exactly what you need to do in order to get more stuff done.
On my life-long journey to master time, I’ve discovered a couple of interesting things about time (besides the fact that we don’t master time, we need to master ourselves – but I digress):
- The more you rush, the more you need to rush in order to keep up. You rarely catch up – the pace of life just quickens. Do you ever feel like life is passing by too fast?
- The more you believe you don’t have enough time, the more you will experience this reality. Ever notice how time-pressured you feel when you’re rushing? And how it doesn’t seem to get better with time?
Instead of racing madly to the end of your day every day, you need to take a pause and slow down in order to create more time.
This may seem counterintuitive to you so here are 5 ways you can slow down and still get more done:
Believe you have enough time.
Take a deep breath and relax and remind yourself you do have enough time to do what you really need to do. Simply saying it to yourself changes your perception of available time. Try it out. It really works.
Do less, finish more.
When you’re in a hurry you often end up multitasking which only slows you down in the long run. Instead of trying to do too many things at once, concentrate on finishing the most important thing and then moving on, and finishing, the next most important thing.
Enjoy yourself.
What a concept! Are you actually enjoying your day? When you are “in the zone” you are not only happier, you’re also more productive. Slow down and enjoy the journey.
Sloooooow down.
Haste makes waste. Mistakes, rework, and missed objectives are the results of rushing. Slow down. Be conscious of the task at hand.
Understand you can’t do it all.
Trying to do so is a recipe for stress, burn out and a lot of wasted time and energy. Instead, choose wisely what you will attempt to get done in your day.
I think this quote sums it up beautifully:
The experience of “being done” and “caught up” is unreachable by doing more. The peace of mind you seek is not dependent on the status of your to-do list.
~ Julie Gray
When you take time to step back and assess what’s truly important, there’s plenty of time available.
Slow down … get more important stuff done.
Now, get on with your day!
